A hitter waiting for a pitch is a pretty common live action image, but I think there are actually less such cards than there are post-swing cards. On this one, one can suspect Konerko might have already begun raising his left leg as part of his hitting motion, but one can't be sure. The card overall remains static.
Two other things do appear though - Konerko certainly cocks the bat quite a ways forward, and not "high over his left shoulder" as you have heard a baseball announcer say for your entire life. But you probably shouldn't quibble about hitting technique with a man who placed 2,340 Hits onto a Major League field of play in his career.
The other noticeable thing is the brace on Paul's left elbow - trouble ahead? Trouble behind? No, the card back informs us he played in 144 Games the season before. But a telling thing to see nonetheless.
+Bonus points for an appearance by the MLB "Logoman." I always like that on a card, even if I have to squint a little.
Uniform Hero? Clearly.
Where’d the egg hatch? Probably only baseball collectors are readily familiar with the fact that Konerko's career began with 81 games in the National League, over 3 seasons. He was drafted by the Dodgers in the 1st round in 1994, 13th overall, and debuted with them briefly in 1997.
How about the migrations? In 1998, the Dodgers traded Konerko to the Reds for a Journeyman type Reliever (aren't they all?) named Jeff Shaw, who was on the better side of pretty good / pretty average, though not by a whole bunch. At the end of that season, Cincinnati traded him to Chicago for Mike Cameron.
Across 2 lengthy, successful careers, Paul Konerko is probably the more well known of the 2 despite Cameron accumulating almost twice as much of that easy-way-out stat we can all use for these things today - WAR.
3 things would be at play in that comparison. Konerko hit about 150 more Home Runs than Cameron, and you know how it is with the long ball. Cameron bested Konerko in another key stat, sort of - Cameron played on 5 more teams. Paul Konerko became a full-time player in Chicago in 1999 and stayed there to play 15 more seasons after that. Fans never forget that.
And for me, I could only respect and envy Chicago for employing Paul Konerko to regularly batter my favorite team's pitching, some 18 or 19 times a year. Wherever Mike Cameron was playing, my team would only see him either 6, or zero, times per year. The All-Stars on the other teams in your favorite team's division are never forgotten, either.
Don’t flip over real Turtles.
Another example of there being no need to fluff a card back for a player like Konerko. His stats say more than any quickly forgotten lines of text ever could. I would take this over the last-five-years-stats-only-and-some-text-fluff every day of the week and twice on Sunday, as some folks like to say to fluff things up.
There are some impressive #s on there that still did not result in a single League Lead across all those years of top-notch production.
There are some impressive #s on there that still did not result in a single League Lead across all those years of top-notch production.
Can the Turtle Catch the Rabbit?
CAREER CHASE: With 422 Home Runs, Konerko is 340 away from Barry Bonds' all-time record of 762.
422? Solid. A pleasant stray thought, this, Konerko soldiering on to record-breaking territory.
Paul Konerko hit 439 Home Runs in his Major League career. That brace in the photo was telling us something.
Subspecies? As with many of the rest of the low uniform # Heroes on this star packed portion of the checklist, Konerko appears in Opening Day and Chrome, but with this same card image.
Topps would go on to issue several nice cards at the end of Konerko's career. Perhaps that effort was just ramping up in 2013, where he has a card in the "Great Catch" photo variant cards, a copy of which has yet to be found, by me.
Topps would go on to issue several nice cards at the end of Konerko's career. Perhaps that effort was just ramping up in 2013, where he has a card in the "Great Catch" photo variant cards, a copy of which has yet to be found, by me.
Bling That Shell I'm not sure yet if I will assemble a page that does not have the easiest parallel to procure, the Wal-Mart Blue. It is possible if I spend enough on the /x parallels. It does seem a little doubtful though, and I did commit to including one example of each combo in the set. So I will need a White Sox Wal-Mart Blue, even though it is a tad weak. But for a Paul Konerko card, this one is simpler to include than one of his cards that would not be just a couple bucks, like most Sea Turtles. So here we see the first Blue/Grey card, still a nice improvement over the white base card -
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