Just imagine the attention if he were a Cub
Yes, this is going to be about Carlos Quentin again.
Sorry for the overkill, but I'm fixated on the White Sox' left fielder, who is having the best season of any Chicago baseball player.
I wrote about Quentin a couple of months ago. I wrote about him last week. I wrote about him for today. Who knows, I might write about him for Wednesday.
Heck, I might write about Carlos Quentin as often as if he were on the Cubs.
Seriously, how much more attention would Quentin get if he played on the North Side?
"He'd be more famous," Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said Monday night before Quentin hit another home run in the Sox' 13-5 victory over the Mariners.
The Sox' complaint always is that they don't get noticed as much as the Cubs do.
Quentin has become a good example. For an AL Most Valuable Player candidate, he remains relatively obscure.
The Sox' fine whine normally must be digested with a sigh and slice of imported cheese. They're correct, but it is what is and not about to change.
Cubs players will attract more media attention even in their bad years. In their good years, like this one, their popularity will be off the charts.
If Quentin played for the Cubs, heck, he would be at least as much of a phenom after five months in Chicago as Kosuke Fukudome was after 5 at-bats.
As a Cub leading his league in home runs, Quentin would be on magazine covers, getting marriage proposals and eating free on restaurant row.
With the Sox, he's a local and national man of mystery.
If Quentin played for the Cubs he already would have had a parade through Wrigleyville, a bridge named for him and a candy-bar endorsement.
With the Sox, he's still just another guy walking down Michigan Avenue.
If Quentin played for the Cubs his name already would be on baseball's Hall of Fame ballot, he would have won a Nobel Prize for hitting, and his story would have inspired a dozen Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies.
With the Sox, he remains a celebrity waiting to happen.
"There are a lot of things more important in the world than attention," Quentin said Monday during an uncharacteristic pregame chat with the media.
Carlos Quentin only now is beginning to receive a fraction of the attention he deserves. How much does he deserve? As much as befits a player with 35 homers and 96 runs batted in on a major-market first-place team.
Quentin brought on some of the anonymity by avoiding publicity the way he avoids slumps.
Maybe the world finally is catching on to Quentin. Sunday, ESPN did a phone interview with him - something generally reserved for Cubs reserve catchers who hit .247 - and Monday he heard chants of "M-V-P!"
"I've prepared myself for what I'm going to experience," Quentin said of the attention.
If he were on the North Side, the experience might be punctuated by a prime-time talk show - if Quentin ever wanted to share his inner self.
On the South Side, it is punctuated by a quiet MVP-type season.
Anyway, please excuse me now while I start work on my next Carlos Quentin column.
mimrem@dailyherald.com