White Sox play-by-play TV man Ken “Hawk” Harrelson is really bad at his job. Most announcers, especially those working with the same team for decades, display a little hometown bias, which is fine. Most of the audience are fans who generally want to hear the guys in the booth reinforce their opinions, after all. Hawk Harrelson does this times a million. Today he did it in a yelling, shameless, red-faced tone that had me scouring his Wikipedia page in search of the words “mentally retarded.”
In the 4th inning, Sox starter Jose Quintana threw a fastball behind Tampa Bay’s Ben Zobrist in retaliation for a pitch that hit A.J. Pierzynski earlier in the game. Without hesitation, home plate umpire Mark Wegner told Quintana to go take an early shower. Hawk’s reaction was, well… take a look for yourself, here.
I don’t know if a commentator has ever been suspended for criticizing umpires, but this is close to being worthy. Wegner’s decision to toss Quintana is iffy, but there’s no excuse for a supposed professional to lose his mind like that on the air. If Hawk is really such an old school* baseball expert, why not enlighten the audience on why Wegner’s ejection was wrong? *(NOTE: old school usually means outdated and/or drunk)
The White Sox are a franchise with a good deal of history. This year, they seem to be for real–they’ve won 8 straight and lead the AL Central. If ownership had a clue they’d fire Hawk and find this team a worthy broadcaster. Last week, they had Bob Saget sing the National Anthem. If Saget can sing with passable mediocrity, he can probably do play-by-play too, I figure. If not, a few dick jokes, Olsen twins jokes, and Olsen twins dick jokes would be markedly better than listening to Hawk.
h/t Deadspin
Follow Sean on Twitter: @sg44444
