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Unless a trade or signing takes place over the next fortnight, SoxFest gave us our last blast of White Sox news before pitchers and catchers report on Feb. 12. Soak it up before it all goes dark.
(If you didn't visit South Side Sox over the weekend, you missed quite a bit. Check out our SoxFest storystream.)
With no one single prominent figure issuing newsmaking proclamations on Sunday, the beat writers went in different directions:
Alternate title: Eeyore Gonna Eeyore. I mean:
On May 27, he was leading the majors with a .399 batting average. He also had 11 HRs and 33 RBIs. Reporters started asking him about the chances of actually finishing the season batting .400.
But Konerko knew something that we didn’t.
"Sometimes balls are falling for you. Things happen and the numbers say you're doing well and you just don't feel good. That happens too," he explains. "I'd say that's more of what was going on during the beginning of the season. I could tell by the way I was hitting. I could just tell."
So when Konerko was challenging .400 ... when he was hitting .321 after falling behind 0-2 ... when a fastball to the face interrupted a seven-game hitting streak, and he came back to add seven more to it ... well, he's saying he basically considered himself a fraud who was about to be found out.
It's a shame he couldn't have maintained that pace, because it could have led to quotes like this:
"It's a surprise to be named the MVP, because I thought they gave this award to baseball players, not big, smelly garbage cans," Konerko said.
Then again, even Alexei Ramirez caught the severe modesty bug. While he had an empty year at the plate, his defense remained top-notch, right?
But getting better on offense isn’t his only goal. The White Sox can be one of the better teams in baseball with their defense up the middle, yet surprisingly, Ramirez feels like the weak link.
"One year together getting to know (center fielder Alejandro) De Aza, last year being his first full year with the team," Ramirez said. "I think Gordon plays a great second base, De Aza plays a great center field. If I can be as good as them, then I think we are really a strong core defensively."
And yet De Aza will continue moving to left field when Dayan Viciedo needs a day off. Huh.
Buddy Bell, Nick Capra and Doug Laumann answered questions about the farm system, from Jared Mitchell to Jefferson Olacio. And who asked some of those questions?
@southsidelarry thx. MM reporters sat back and took notes while we asked questions-check out Gonzales farm report: trib.in/XF9lIF
— elgonzo4sox (@elgonzo4sox) January 28, 2013
Beyond what Brooks Boyer told us on Thursday afternoon about ticket sales, he gave an update on the Green Line situation. The Sox are still leaning against using shuttles, but they want to make sure the security and lighting is acceptable.
If the tweets were any indication, Tom Paciorek, Greg Luzinski, Ron Kittle and Co. seemed to have an absolute blast. Speaking of which:
Twitter recap
The final day of SoxFest in tweets and photos (read it in single-page form):