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Zalusky: No. 14 will always be No. 1 to me

With all due respect to Paul Konerko, when this White Sox fan thinks of No. 14, the first player who springs to mind is Bill Melton.

When a Facebook friend recently posted pictures of his 10 favorite athletes, he tagged me to do the same.

The first photo I posted was, for me, an obvious choice. Others might have picked No. 34 of the Bears or No. 23 of the Bulls.

The picture I picked shows a dark-haired, sideburned player in a uniform with red pinstripes. A spot of sunlight gleams off his red White Sox batting helmet. In the background, flanking his head, are the red outfield seats of old Comiskey Park and the park's classic scoreboard.

Beltin' Bill Melton is known to younger White Sox fans as a baseball analyst - a good-humored, straight-from-the-shoulder fellow whose voice somehow reminds me a little of 1940s Hollywood character actor Jack Carson.

But in my mind, he will always be my first baseball hero. A very real hero who leaves a complex Chicago baseball legacy.

Melton will never reach the Hall of Fame. Among all-time Sox greats, he isn't in the same league as Eddie Collins, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Luke Appling, Nellie Fox or Luis Aparicio, four of whom are in the Hall and one who should be.

And his feats hardly match up with those of Konerko, who later donned No. 14.

A converted outfielder, Melton worked hard to learn third base, but initially had his struggles at the hot corner. In one 1970 game, he broke his nose trying to catch a pop foul.

But No. 14 could clobber the baseball in a way that no previous Sox player could claim.

A discovery of Sox scout and 1920s Sox pitcher Hollis "Sloppy" Thurston, who also discovered Melton's roommate, Ed Herrmann, Melton came to the South Side in 1968 after the Sox released Ken Boyer, another No. 14.

He made his debut on May 4, 1968, driving in the decisive run on a sacrifice fly in his first at-bat in a 4-1 win against the Yankees at Comiskey.

Playing in the ultimate pitcher's park, White Sox Park, he managed to win an American League home run crown, smashing 33 home runs in 1971.

He reached the summit in dramatic fashion, hitting two homers against Milwaukee's Jim Slaton on the night of Sept. 29, and the following afternoon hitting the 33rd against the Brewers' Bill Parsons. That trio of dingers helped vault him over Norm Cash and Reggie Jackson, who were tied at 32.

The 33 homers also matched his 1970 total.

Until Harold Baines broke his mark in 1987, Melton held the Sox record for homers, with 154.

Melton was must-see TV for me as a grade-schooler, even if he was hard to see because of the iffy UHF signal of WFLD. If you were born after cable, you didn't have to suffer the travails of the UHF antenna.

In my baseball fantasies, I was Beltin' Bill on nights when I would sneak out with a bat and rubber ball to take swings at a wall of a grocery store in a parking lot across the alley from my family's Chicago apartment.

But Melton's glory days would be all too brief. If you charted his career trajectory, you would trace an upside-down V.

The V's descent began after the glorious 1971 season. He injured his back falling from the top of an eight-foot aluminum ladder while installing shingles on his patio roof in Mission Viejo, California.

The lingering effects of the injury halted his 1972 season in late June, and he would receive treatment at Sherman Hospital in Elgin in July for a herniated disc.

Although he came back strongly in 1973 with 20 homers and a .277 batting average, he received a major blow in December, when the Sox acquired another third baseman, Ron Santo, from the Cubs. Even though Santo played mostly at second base and DH in 1974, his presence affected Melton's play. At the end of July, he publicly expressed his desire to finish his career with the California Angels and play near his home in Mission Viejo.

The low point was reached in 1975, when Melton openly clashed with broadcaster Harry Caray, who questioned Melton's effort, and felt the ire of fans.

Finally, Melton was traded to the Angels in a deal that brought the Sox Jim Spencer.

His last career at-bat was against the White Sox as a member of the Indians in 1977. He struck out looking against Ken Kravec.

With the passage of years, the bad memories have faded, and Melton enjoys a second life on the South Side. He is a Chicago fixture.

When he threw out the first pitch at Guaranteed Rate Field two years ago, I was on hand to cheer my hero once again, wearing the pre-game giveaway, a Bill Melton T-shirt. In fact, I'm wearing it right now.

Bill Melton of the Chicago White Sox, 1971 American League home run champion, will undergo surgery for a herniated disc in his back, the White Sox announced on Saturday, July 8, 1972 in Chicago. Melton shown here hitting his 33 home run off the Brewers in the 1971 season. He was hitting 245, with 7 home runs and 30 RBI's through 57 games of this season. (AP Photo) AP File Photo
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