There is an unbelievable amount of press devoted to Hawk Harrelson, and whether he was personally responsible for breaking up Freddy Garcia's bid for a no-hitter/perfect game.
And you know why? Because Jay Mariotti evidently started it by blaming Garcia's close-but-no-cigar effort on Harrelson.
I say "evidently" because
I don't read Mariotti. I don't even peek at his column because even a second-long glance counts as a page view. That's all that counts when newspapers are selling ads online.
The Chicago Tribune should know this, yet they have two separate pieces discussing the issue.
Ed Sherman defends Harrelson in his media column, and
John Kass directly refers to Mariotti in his column about the "heinie bird," although not by name.
Perhaps the Trib learned its lesson when they slaughtered Mariotti in the press after the Ozzie Guillen "fag" incident, only to see Mariotti return five weeks later with the Sun-Times having his back. Now they're just resorting to vague references and alternate names.
As far as I can tell, no other Chicago or suburban paper mentions this flap at all. So why would the Trib? People know what Mariotti's about by now, so mentioning the column is only going to remind people that Mariotti has a column to read.
The debate itself is stupid. I prefer when announcers talk around a no-hitter, but as Sherman mentions, it doesn't mean a thing. It's merely a silly bit a baseball tradition like the rally hat, and it's fun when otherwise cynical people do observe senseless superstitions. Ed Farmer talked around it nicely, saying that the Angels have zeroes across the board, and that his scorebook is clean and needs no extra ink.
Either way, it doesn't make a lick of difference, and neither does Mariotti. I wish I could read him, because he's the most prolific columnist in the city. Unfortunately, his next thought-provoking column will be his first. It's a mystery why the Sox and the Tribune continue to legitimize him.