Reading about Paul Konerko’s retirement, which could be called the poor man’s version of Derek Jeter’s season-long farewell tour, I couldn’t help but recall the day before the All-Star game in 2002.

On that day, the All-Star media day, when members of the All-Star teams are available for interviews, I talked, among others, to Konerko, the Chicago White Sox first baseman. He had been selected to the American League team as a backup to Jason Giambi, the starting first baseman.

Konerko was having a terrific season, hitting .328 with 20 home runs, 71 runs batted in, a .374 on-base percentage and .571 slugging percentage. Firmly entrenched among the league leaders, he nevertheless seemed to be treated with less respect than other big hitters.

“Do you feel slighted by not being mentioned with those other players?” I asked him. Some of the players I had in mind were Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa. Little did I know at the time that those particular players would become poster players for the steroids era.

“That’s ridiculous,” Konerko replied respectfully. “Those guys are …

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When I encountered a fellow I know the other day, a baseball fan, I expected him to begin complaining about the Chicago Cubs, the team with which he grew up as a Chicago native. He has since moved elsewhere, out of the country, in fact, but he has taken his roots with him.

His love for baseball, that is, not for the Cubs. I quickly learned that he has forsaken the Cubs and now roots for the Cleveland Indians, the team from his wife’s home town.

“What happened to the Cubs?” I asked him.

“They don’t want to win,” he responded. “They don’t spend any money.”

The Cubs have finished in fifth place this season for the fifth consecutive season, averaging 69 wins and 93 losses per year.

My friend was right. The Cubs have …

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When the Atlanta Braves fired Frank Wren as their general manager Monday, John Schuerholz invoked the term “the Braves’ way.” In 14 years of writing about the Braves’ unprecedented run of consecutive division championships, with Schuerholz as general manager and Bobby Cox as manager, I never heard about “the Braves’ way.”

Whether or not the term was used, though, there was at least an unspoken or unwritten Braves way of constructing and maintaining a championship-caliber team. No one can produce an unparalleled perennial winner without having a system.

The New York Yankees have a system. It is signified not by words but by a symbol: $

Add another $ and then another $ and a few more $$$$$, and there you have the Yankees’ way of planning for the post-season. Sometimes it works, most seasons it doesn’t.

As I write this, the Yankees are on the verge of …

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