Hawk Harrelson sounds like he's begging to become the next Steve Stone in terms of popularity with the players. Of course, Stone got in trouble when players heard his on-air criticisms the first time; Hawk's making sure everybody's hearing his rips by repeating them away from the booth.
After letting loose all game long, the Sox broadcaster
told the Sun-Times' Chris DeLuca a number of things, such as:
- 'This team is one of the biggest underachievers I've seen. They don't have what we had last year -- that killer instinct.'
- 'This team, when we take the lead, I don't like it because they seem to sit back. I'd rather see the other team take the lead first.'
- 'These lie. These don't.'
Of course, Point No.3 loses something without the pointing gestures, which brought to mind Principal Vernon from "The Breakfast Club" (R.I.P.). I don't know if I could've kept a straight face if Hawk did it in front of me.
Nevertheless, it's a shame that the season had to come to this, because
on Sunday, Hawk sounded really, really...
...
good.
I can't say there's been another time in Sox history where I nodded my head (in spirit, because I'm not crazy) to nearly everything Harrelson said that wasn't about Sal Bando and the rest of the early 1970s A's.
Normally there would be talk about how Joe Blanton had Cy Young stuff, about the way the ball bounces, about the umpire's strike zone, about Oakland Alameda County McAfee Network Associates Coliseum being a house of horrors, but Hawk just let loose.
I don't have a copy of the game, so I don't have anything verbatim. But when the Sox hit/ran into an 8-2 double play with one out in the first inning; when Juan Uribe struck out with a man on third and one out in the second; when Jose Contreras threw a 3-2 meatball to Frank Thomas with a base open in the fourth; when Joe Crede struck out with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth; when Scott Podsednik struck out looking in the ninth; Hawk let them hear it.
My favorite line, was a variation of the second thing listed above. After Contereras gave up the homer -- which Hawk ranted about, on and off, for the rest of the game -- he said that he's never been around a team in his 44 years of baseball where he never wanted them to take the lead early. That's something nobody would ever hear Hawk say before the World Series, and I agreed with the sentiment.
Darrin Jackson, per usual, was the more chipper one, but he didn't have much good to say, and he didn't try forcing anything to make up for it. Put them together, and I don't think I've ever enjoyed listening to them so much. It's just a shame that they can't be that honest when the Sox aren't tanking.
Update: Paul Konerko got word about this, and the captain is primed for action!
"It's a free country. Everybody's entitled to their
opinions. I'm not going to say he's wrong or right. You're programmed
to play. Sometimes you execute, sometimes you don't. That's the way I
look at it."
ROAR!