I’ve done my best to posit the innate qualities of Chicago’s newest baseballers this season, whether it be the false promise of Jayson Nix or the outsize legend of Jake Fox (Tell me a little bit of your inner child didn’t die last night when Fox let that single skip under his glove. It’s okay to talk about.) But I have to admit that Sox third baseman/wunderkind Gordon Beckham has largely eluded me. Part of that is the nature of rising college players: They come into the league men ready to contribute, as opposed to the men-children drafted out of high school who need to be molded and manipulated them into organization men.

But just a few blinks in the Beckham force field are enough to give us what we need. In this week’s Sports Illustrated’s “Pop Culture Grid,” Beckham is asked a series of questions that reveal his spirit animal is a three-legged puppy. First off, he admits that his “waterworks often run during movies” because he’s “way too sensitive.” SI also asks him to complete the sentence “I get the chills when I think of…” and his answer? “My black lab Dixie.” Now, of course a man can love his dog, I’ve loved a few in my time. But it takes a particularly sensitive man to be given chills just thinking about his dog. Even completing “I wish I could transform into…” with “Megan Fox’s bed,” has a sweet naiveté about it. At least, I don’t think he meant to say he wants to be the thing Megan Fox has sex with other guys on top of. In fact, most alpha-male athletes would probably flip the two, and say Megan Fox gives them the chills and they wish they could transform into a killer canine.

And then there’s Comcast Sportsnet’s blog, which notes that Beckham actually chose his plate-approach song, “Your Love” by The Outfield. It’s a song that glories in having “another shoulder to cry upon.” That’s a touch different than his fellow corner-infielder, Paul Konerko, whose choice of Metallica’s “Harvester of Sorrow” begins “My life suffocates/Planting seeds of hate.” In fact, I’d argue that “Your Love” is the most plaintive entrance song since the days when Mike MacDougal would trot in from the bullpen to The Doors’s “Touch Me.”

This kid Beckham has heart, and he wears it on his sleeve. Remember, it was just a year ago that he was hanging around in college, doing “ball thingies” and eating a lot (2:00):