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MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 8, 2010

Ken Williams

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLORIDA

Q. You said last night, it's not over until it's over, you used all of that; when did it kind of pick backup where you knew it was going to get done?
KENNY WILLIAMS: Again, we had a consistent dialogue throughout the entire time. But I wouldn't say that things really started to come together until after I left our press conference yesterday. And we had one more meeting headed by Rick Hahn just prior to dinner and things just finished up over dinner, and sushi. Good sushi.

Q. How important was this to the organization?
KENNY WILLIAMS: You know, again, when I talk about Paul Konerko, I first have to talk about the first-class person that he is. And believe me, that factors into our equation, whenever we are trying to certainly make a commitment of this nature, and one of the things that Greg Genske, his agent and representative, and I talk about all the time, is the type of person that this guy -- the type of guy that this guy is, not just on the field but in the clubhouse, on the team bus and the hotel, etc., etc.
So this is certainly about the talent, but just as importantly, I think a message to young people out there, young players out there, as well, that if you conduct yourself in a certain manner, those things are also factored in.
You know, we are just thrilled to have not only the player, but the person, and hopefully we can one day have him retire as a White Sox.

Q. What is next on the agenda now?
KENNY WILLIAMS: Well, next on the agenda is figuring out a way to pay for all of this (chuckling). We certainly ramped it up here recently and have been very aggressive. And I think at this point, I've stated before, I feel comfortable, confident in the every day lineup and the defense that we are going to put out there, as well as the starting rotation, and the back four guys in the bullpen. But I think we've got to augment that, just a bit to make ourselves as strong as possible and contend for the division.
So we've got some work cut out for us and we certainly I think are at a point where we have got to get a little creative, because we are about tapped out right now. So we need to either get creative or we need to get a flood at the ticket counter pretty quickly.

Q. Was the need to be creative the reason for deferring the money in the final year?
KENNY WILLIAMS: Well, Paul Konerko has some good teammates, because one of the things that helped us get this thing done is Adam Dunn coming in and caring more about winning than the last dollar, and certainly dollars, this year, because he was more than accommodating in moving some of his money back to the latter part of his deal.
A.J. Pierzynski is another one who did the same thing, and the rest kind of came together through, literally, our marketing department, and accounting people really just kind of pulling as many revenue sources together as possible. So this is something that you have to do when you're in our situation, and we just thought we had to capitalize on it, and fortunately, I think we were dealing with a player who really wanted to be here in Chicago and finish his career here. So he was more than accommodating in our dealings. It wasn't easy, and Rick Hahn can attest to that, because he's got one of the bigger, tougher agents in the game. But in the end it was able to be hammered out.

Q. I know you have to do what makes sense business-wise, but when you hear guys like Gordon Beck and people talk about how we need Paul Konerko back, we need our captain and leader back, how much does that play into your mind going into the deal trying to get it done?
KENNY WILLIAMS: Zero. Zero. No, listen, you're not going to tell us anything we don't know about the guy. He's been here for ten years. So we are happy that he's loved by his teammates, and that does go a long way.
But aside from that, you know, we have got to do what we have got to do.

Q. How long over sushi, how many minutes, or do you remember how long it took for it to come together at that point over dinner?
KENNY WILLIAMS: Well, I don't think we can narrow it to that particular timeline, because it's a process. It's a first conversation, and leading to second and third and fourth conversations. And I don't know at what point, you know, or how many e-mail exchanges between Craig and Rick took place over sushi and then after sushi.
But Greg probably waited a little while longer. He might have gotten a little bit more because Rick and I started to tip a few back after a while. (Laughter.)

Q. How does the chairman feel about the whole thing?
KENNY WILLIAMS: He's happy. He's happy. He's not happy with being portrayed as coming in on the white horse to save the day, because he really -- you know, he's got a close relationship with Paul. He really tried to stay out of this as much as possible. I think he and Craig had maybe talked briefly once, maybe twice, and wasn't about details.
And I was only in on one personal conversation with Craig, as well, so this was really he and Rick Hahn hammering this thing out and getting down to the nuts and bolts, and I have to commend both of them, because it's an arduous process, it's a very frustrating, at times, process, and you know, just when you think that you are close, you're not. And when you think that you're done, you're not. So it's tough, and we were very, very close to going a different direction. And I'm sure they were, as well.
So for it to come together at the end, which a lot of times this is how things get done, is a bit of good fortune on both parts I think, because I think he would have looked awfully funny in another uniform at this point.

Q. Before the end of the season you knew there would be more room, did you have a gut feeling walking away from the park in October that this was going to work out and Paul was going to be back or not?
KENNY WILLIAMS: No. What I've learned, sitting in this chair for as long as I have, is you certainly don't count your chickens before they are hatched. And you don't get ahead of yourself either way, whether you're thinking that things won't work out or that things will. I think that you just set your sights on your targets and what you want to do, develop your plans, and go full steam ahead towards them.
Generally we have about four plans on the table and four directions we can go. We decided it was only going to be two this year. We were either going to go younger and turn the roster over or we were going to go full steam ahead and trust that we could put together a competitive club and a club that our fan base could put their arms around and enjoy and support.
Jerry Reinsdorf is a very competitive man and wants to win a championship and it's our job to put together as good of a club as we can to accomplish those goals.

Q. You mentioned marketing and ticketing before, have you noticed an up take in ticket sales since the Dunn announcement?
KENNY WILLIAMS: I have not paid much attention to it, because we were headed down this course and if I paid too much attention to it and it wasn't going our way, I might have had to bring it to Jerry's attention, and I didn't want to do that just yet. So let's just hope it comes together in that fashion.
But our fans, hey, listen, we have great, great fans, but the fact of the matter is you have to prove to White Sox fans that you are going to be worthy of discretionary spending and I don't have a problem with it and kind of take pride in the fact that we have earned their support over the years.
As such, it's never lost on us that that's only on a year-to-year basis. We have got to continuously prove ourselves, and I don't have a problem with that.

End of FastScripts

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