CONCORD — The Piedmont Boll Weevils will be an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox next season. That’s the good news. And for a change, there’s no accompanying bad news.

The Weevils, in effect, have been dumped by the Philadelphia Phillies only to land on their feet (if Weevils do indeed have feet) with the Sox. There’s nothing at all wrong with that trade. That’s like getting Randy Johnson straight up for Randy Velarde. Todd Helton for Todd Pratt.

The Sox have just a bit more on the ball these days than the Phillies. This morning’s standings show Chicago at 87-58 and cruising toward the American League’s Central Division championship.

Meanwhile, the long-suffering Phils are a pathetic 60-85 and are cruising absolutely nowhere. They’re actually looking up at moribund Montreal and even Florida, which looked like baseball’s answer to the L.A. Clippers not long ago.

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf appeared in the flesh at Lowe’s Motor Speedway Wednesday to confirm that this isn’t all just a pleasant dream or one more wild and crazy promotion concocted by Todd Parnell, who, by the way, will still be the main man for the Weevils. (That’s more good news.)

In between telling jokes about the Chicago Bulls — that other franchise he runs — Reinsdorf explained why the White Sox want to fish, even after the Phillies cut bait and headed to supposedly greener pastures in Lakewood, N.J.

Reinsdorf says it’s partly the weather. And partly it’s John Henry Moss’ South Atlantic League, which has turned out big names from Ty Cobb to Hank Aaron to Nolan Ryan to Andruw Jones. But mostly it’s the fact that the White Sox already have their Triple A team in Charlotte and their high Class A team in Winston-Salem. Now, they’ve got their low Class A team right smack in the middle of those two in sunny Kannapolis —instead of chilly Burlington, Iowa.

That’s going to make life a whole lot easier for the organization’s roving instructors and talent evaluators. Now, they’ve got three teams they can check out in a hurry without having to visit the airport. And if you’ve participated in Park and Ride lately, that’s a pretty big plus.

It’s also going to be a heck of a lot easier moving players back and forth from Piedmont to Winston, then moving them from Piedmont to Clearwater, Fla, as Philly used to do.

Piedmont’s coaches this past season were a competent, hard-working crew — but some of the people at the top of the organization have apparently played too many games without batting helmets.

Recently, the Phils shipped journeyman outfielder Rob Ducey to Toronto for the proverbial player to be named later. Nothing wrong with that. But eight days later, they made another trade with the Blue Jays. This time they unloaded second baseman Mickey Morandini north for another player to be named later. Of course, that PTBNL turned out to be Ducey. In effect, they spent time, energy and plane fare trading Ducey for Ducey.

And they’re wondering why they’re 60-85.

It gets worse.

Ever scan major league boxscores looking for former Boll Weevils.

Don’t bother. You’ll find a trickle of former Weevil pitchers have infiltrated the majors this season (San Diego’s Adam Eaton was actually doing OK until yesterday), but no Weevil position players have made it.

That’s right. Philadelphia stocked the franchise in Kannapolis with talent for six years without producing one non-pitching big-leaguer. I’m not talking about people like this year’s stud Marlon Byrd. He should make it. But how can entire teams from ‘95 and ‘96 — guys who have had ample time — come up empty.

Part of it’s been bad luck. Pat Burrell skipped Piedmont and Scott Rolen came through the SAL one year before the Phils moved from Spartanburg to Kannapolis. But there’ve also been plenty of bad June drafts and bad judgments on Caribbean talent. The ensuing talent shortfall has left the major league team throwing cash at free agents and making trades (Ducey for Ducey?) to compete.

But the White Sox, as Reinsdorf explained Wednesday, have a policy of “growing their own.” They can’t compete with Yankee dollars for free agents, but they can always draft smart.

Look at the current Sox roster. The stars — Frank Thomas, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Lee, Chris Singleton and Ray Durham are all home-grown. Even more telling, just a couple of years ago, Ordonez (an A.L. all-star this season) and Lee ( a future one) were playing for the White Sox farm team in Hickory.

Bottom line: as good as this year’s Weevil team was, year in and year out, the White Sox are going to provide better talent than the Phillies. And yeah, we know the White Sox haven’t visited the World Series since 1959 when Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox were their double-play combination. But they’re gonna change that real soon.

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The million dollar question (or maybe the 3.5 million dollar question, since that’s the average value of a SAL franchise) is whether anyone’s going to make the odyssey to see the new Weevils/Sox play in 2001. As good as the team was this summer, it didn’t draw. Playoff attendance was ridiculous. There were more people at yesterday’s press conference.

Parnell explains that fans in this area “never embraced the Phillies.”

They may not hug the White Sox, either. Because the Sox don’t exactly boast a huge natural following like the Yanks or Braves.

But Charlotte businessman Bruton Smith, who has made millions in motorsports, announced Wednesday that he’s purchased 50 percent of the Weevils from Larry Hedrick. And Mr. Smith knows a thing or two about filling empty seats.

Smith said yesterday that he still remembers watching the Albemarle American Legion team that reached the Little World Series in 1940. He said he really, really likes baseball.

Let’s just hope he still likes baseball when his first Weevil season ends next August.

Hey, but at least there’s hope. It won’t be worse and it might be a whole lot better.