Konerko's No. 14 set for retirement
In his final game in a White Sox uniform last season, Paul Konerko trotted out to first base in the top of the sixth inning and manager Robin Ventura gave him the ceremonial pull.
Konerko acknowledged the last of countless standing ovations he received at U.S. Cellular Field over a stellar run of 16 seasons with the Sox before heading into the dugout and calling it a career.
For the most part, the White Sox' longtime captain is enjoying his retirement.
"I'm super busy with a lot of different things," Konerko said. "With baseball, it's like you have nothing going on for four months and then for seven months it just dominates your life. Every minute, the whole day, every day, it's just baseball. I certainly don't have that going on, but I have a lot of things going on in a given day.
"I'm definitely busy. I don't sit around and go, 'Wow, this great.' There's definitely been a couple times where I've been like, 'This retirement stuff, people are full of it that say this is easy.' There are definitely moments of stress and business to where you're like, 'Why am I grinding away, I thought I was supposed to be retired?' "
Konerko will be back on the baseball field Saturday afternoon at the Cell when his uniform No. 14 is retired.
In franchise history, Konerko ranks first with 4,010 total bases and second to Frank Thomas with 432 home runs and 1,383 RBI.
"He deserves it," manager Robin Ventura said of Konerko becoming the 10th White Sox player to have his number retired. "He kind of epitomizes a guy who shows up every day and gives you everything he has. He was a true pro, he really was. I feel fortunate to have been one of his managers."
Konerko feels fortunate to have his number retired.
"As a kid, you see stuff at stadiums or you hear about a guy whose number is retired and you don't really think that is something that's attainable," said the 39-year-old Konerko. "Even when you're playing, I mean, you just don't think that's you. You don't think that is something you can get to. If your process is good and you're out there and you stayed healthy enough, to get your number retired you obviously have to stay with one team a long time and you have to stay healthy and if you could just keep your mind clear of stuff like that, the numbers will add up and you probably have a crack at it.
"That's kind of how it happened. I never at one time was consciously thinking, even after I was a free agent in 2005 or 2010, where a move was made to say I want to go back there because I want to have my number retired. I think the guys who think like that, you'll never know about them because it doesn't happen."
As far as baseball withdrawal symptoms go, Konerko is not exactly itching to get back into the batter's box.
"I don't miss it, at all," he said. "I miss some of the people. But when I see a game, and I haven't watched any baseball besides some White Sox baseball, I don't definitely go out of my way. If I have stuff going on, I'm not going to race home to watch the game. I don't tape the game or anything like that. If I'm home, it's on in the background."
Konerko has always been a hockey nut, and he has taken his love of the sport to a new level since retiring from baseball.
In March, he attended Wayne Gretzky's fantasy camp in Las Vegas.
"I played a lot," Konerko said. "I played probably from about November, December to March a ton. I was lucky enough to go to the Gretzky fantasy camp. I was a fantasy camper, which was an awesome thing. It was tough."
After having his number retired during a pregame ceremony Saturday, Konerko and his wife Jennifer are heading over to the United Center for Game 4 of the Blackhawks-Ducks playoff game.
Konerko will head back home to Phoenix after that and resume his life in street clothes.
"When I retired it was great because every day I woke up I wasn't like, 'I've got to figure out how to get a friggin' hit today,'" Konerko said. "That's a nice feeling not to have because it was a battle and I had a lot of different ways and I had a lot of different approaches and I didn't play the game easy. I didn't hit easy. It took a lot of work. Everyday I came in here, it was a blank canvas. A lot of days it was like, 'What am I going with tonight?' It's not for everybody. It's not the easiest way to go about a career. I did a lot of changes all the time, daily, so I don't really miss that at all because that's a lot of mental drain to go over that all the time."