Konerko on 2007: Not good, not fun

TUCSON, Ariz. -- If you want some raucous comedy, step into White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen's office.

Looking more for nuts-and-bolts baseball? Jim Thome or Jermaine Dye are solid choices.

A.J. Pierzynski is more one-stop shopping for all the off-field dirt, and Mark Buehrle always seems up for a little bit of everything.

Just like on the field, every member of the Sox seems to have a specific role in the clubhouse.

Paul Konerko fills his especially well.

Now entering his 10th season, the White Sox' elder statesman has a gift for taking an endless string of games and condensing them into thoughtful perspective.

Konerko can do it with a serious tone, or he can take the humorous route. More often than not, the standout first baseman combines the two.

Konerko was particularly reflective Wednesday morning. Maybe his 32nd birthday allowed him to go a little deeper than usual. Or maybe Konerko was just happy to throw the last shovel of dirt on the White Sox' miserable 2007 season.

Was it as bad as it seemed?

"Worse,'' Konerko said. "Last year was one of those things where even in late August you could start processing things out because you knew it was over. There was nowhere to go. I've been lucky because last year was my ninth with the White Sox, and the other eight, I was on competitive teams.

"That was the first one where I was on a bad team. We were literally in the top three, four worst teams in baseball. It was not good, not fun.''

Konerko, who batted .259 with 31 home runs and 90 RBI, made no excuses for 2007. But he said the injury bug made a bad situation downright miserable.

"I don't think we were going to go anywhere last year because the other teams were better,'' Konerko said. "But there were some injuries. If a guy like (Darin) Erstad would have stayed healthy all year, we probably would have been .500. I really believe that. That doesn't mean we would have won anything; it just would have been more bearable.

"We had a lot of guys get hurt last year, but it wasn't all at once. It was more consecutive, where a guy would go down and he was out for two weeks. As soon as he came back, another guy went down.

"It seemed like we never really got going with our main lineup. I think our main lineup that we really wanted to use might have been on the field together only six or eight times the whole year.

"So that kind of tells you it was a broken year, where nothing went well in any facet.''

It was a bad year (72-90), without a doubt, but it's over.

While the Sox are not projected to finish ahead of the Detroit Tigers or the Cleveland Indians in the rugged AL Central this season, Konerko all but assured he and his teammates will be competitive.

"I try not to be too like, 'We're going to win the World Series' because it's spring training and everybody thinks they have the best team right now,'' Konerko said. "But I do think guys like Orlando (Cabrera) and Swish (Nick Swisher) and Octavio (Dotel) and (Scott) Linebrink are really good additions because they kind of stabilize two parts of the team we really need to have.

"Orlando and Swish bring the top of the lineup energy, and (Dotel and Linebrink) at the back end of the bullpen, now it seems solid and veteran-like.

"That's what I notice the most, there's kind of a sense that we're built right and we have the right people in the right spots. We still have to go out and execute, but it just seems like we look like a winning team with those guys.

"Those were really good pickups because just like they talk about the middle of our order having guys that can get the job done, those guys and what they do have track records as well.''