I'm sure
this news will go over marvelously here:
CHICAGO -- The Chicago White Sox have agreed to a three-year contract
extension with broadcaster Ken "Hawk" Harrelson. The new deal keeps
Harrelson in the White Sox television booth through the 2011 season.
"The White Sox are thrilled to have Hawk in the booth for the
next four seasons," said Brooks Boyer, White Sox chief marketing
officer. "His popular catch phrases, history with the franchise and
overall passion for White Sox baseball have made him a very popular
legend among our fans."
Hawk is the only Sox TV broadcaster I know, so I probably have the same attitude about him as Cubans have about Castro. I used to think you could either love him or hate him, but I kind of like him because I don't like him, if that makes any sense. Two points in his favor:
No. 1: He's identifiable. I pretty much have the Extra Innings package on all night, every night during the summer. As far as play-by-play guys go, I can probably only name a handful of them by their voices -- Vin Scully, Dave Niehaus, Michael Kay, Skip Caray, Duane Kuiper, Dick Bremer and Matt Vasgersian, and Vasgersian really shouldn't count since he gets involved in so many other commercials and projects.
The rest -- even the Cubs' Len Kasper, who I like -- all have that generic 30something White Guy Broadcast School Graduate flavor. Nobody sounds like the Hawk, for better or for worse, and I think it would be unsettling to hear one of those vanilla voices calling Sox games for an entire summer.
No. 2: He's familiar. You know that all current players can be compared to Carl Yazstrzemski, Sam McDowell or Catfish Hunter. You know that the calls are imbalanced. You know that any pitcher shutting down the Sox has Cy Young stuff. You know Joe Crede is a better third baseman than Alex Rodriguez.
These are the things that make Hawk entertaining to me. Sox broadcasts can often be a two hours of inside jokes if all the elements are there. He's the main reason why I'm looking forward to the Nick Swisher era, as it should take Hawkgasms to a whole new level.
Currently,
the Sun-Times has:
Hawk Harrelson received a three-year extension from the Blackhawks to
keep him in the White Sox television booth through at least the 2011
season.
Now that I'd like to see.