How Konerko and Beckham pulled one on Peavy

Earlier in the week, I taped an interview with Jake Peavy as the White Sox were pushing to get him voted into the All-Star Game as part of MLB's Final Vote.

It wasn't Peavy, however. It was Gordon Beckham impersonating Peavy.

And though the campaign didn't work, Beckham's parody definitely did. Enough so that it was picked up by various networks and racked up quite a bit of mileage. More than I expected, actually.

The editors at the Daily Herald thought it might be amusing to give you some details on how it came about and how it went down.

It might surprise you to know that this was all Beckham and Paul Konerko. They conceived the idea and they wrote it, though the execution was mostly improvised.

As you may have come to realize, Peavy can talk. He's good at it. And he has a cache of words and phrases that he calls up in an instant that are immediately identifiable with the Sox starter: “Bubba,” “I promise you,” and “the boys” are among them.

You also may have noticed that Peavy has conversations with himself while he's pitching, and will often reprimand himself when he doesn't throw that perfect pitch.

I love it. It has always entertained me, and clearly it entertains his teammates. They appreciate his competitiveness.

Well, Beckham, nailed it. All of it. The sleeveless shirt, the iPod earbuds, the guitar, and the accent, though Beckham already has the drawl (Georgia is just east of Alabama, after all).

Konerko was openly excited about the idea of performing the bit. He ran the show, instructing both cameras how to shoot the scene. He needed me to play the straight part and gave me two questions to ask. Just let Beckham riff.

We did it in two takes, and most of what you see is from the first.

The first one was actually the best, and we did the second for insurance. We couldn't have gone any longer because Beckham said, “My voice can only do two takes.”

That must have been how Christian Bale felt when filming “The Dark Knight”.

One thing that's not in the final video is a moment when I'm wrapping up the interview and Beckham interrupts me by waving an American flag and declaring, “There's nothing more American than Jake Peavy in the All-Star Game.”

I don't know if that's necessarily true, but maybe it is. I can't say for sure. But, I sort of feel like goin' muddin' is pretty American.

Peavy loved the impression, and the team enjoyed watching it on the big screen. Plenty of laughter in the dugout. And I hear the video made its way to some other clubhouses for laughs as well.

In the end, Yu Darvish won that final vote, but Peavy can still enjoy some spare ribs in Kansas City thanks to an injury to C.J. Wilson.

After the video was launched, Peavy jokingly declared: “There will be repercussions.”

And when I asked Beckham if he was worried, he said, “Well, I didn't even know that until now, so, yes, now I'm worried.”

He'll be fine. I think.

Ÿ Chris Rongey is the host of the White Sox pregame and postgame shows on WSCR 670-AM The Score. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRongey and at chrisrongey.com. Subscriber Total Access members can email him questions each week via our online link.