CHICAGO – These were supposed to be Paul Konerko's final games against the Twins, but the White Sox slugger is sidelined with a broken bone in his left hand. He expects to return to the lineup this week.
But his days of tormenting the Twins are over. He will retire after the season, ending an 18-year career.
"We've been nicer to him than he's been nice to us," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He's hit home runs against us. He's added to his totals. We had the opportunity and the pleasure to watch him trot around the bases — if you can call it a pleasure — too many times.
"A class act, a very good baseball player over there."
In 257 career games against the Twins, Konerko, 38, hit .286 with 50 home runs and 136 RBI. The home runs are the most against any opponent and include some painful ones to the Twins.
Funny how people focus on the negative. When asked for his memories of the Twins through his career, Konerko talked about what the Twins have done to him.
"I think more of the crushing Metrodome losses that we had there," Konerko said. "Just a lot of good battles. For a while there it was just us and them kind of battling every year. You always felt uneasy playing them. Fundamentally speaking, the way they played the game, the way they conducted themselves over there. Throughout the whole time I was here. they were a very tough team to play."
Konerko liked the contrasting styles. The Twins never had teams loaded with power in the 2000s and liked to be aggressive on the basepaths. The White Sox liked the long ball.
