Chicago White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko became the 48th major league player to join the 400 home run club when his solo shot tied the Oakland Athletics in the ninth inning on Wednesday.
Konerko ranks seventh in home runs among active players. Alex Rodriguez leads the list with 632 home runs. Former White Sox players Jim Thome (604) and Andruw Jones (422) are also among the active leaders.
"The round numbers, everybody likes the round numbers," Konerko said. "But again when it comes to that kind of stuff, I think when I'm done playing you look back that's when it might hit home more. But when you're in a middle of a grind and you're grinding every day and working, you tend to not think about that stuff.
"Yeah, it's nice. Every time I've gotten to a hundred or whatever it is, you never think you're going to get to the next one or you think it seems far away. So yeah, it's cool, but we'll tuck it away now and we'll look at it probably when I'm done playing and reopen and probably talk about it more then."
The 36-year-old Konerko only trails Frank Thomas for home runs as a White Sox player. Thomas hit 448 home runs with the team. Konerko has homered 393 times in his 13-year White Sox career. His seven other home runs came early in his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds.
Konerko's fourth home run of the season and 400th of his career came against Oakland reliever Grant Balfour.