Happy birthday to Ken Harrelson who turns 74 today.
By the time he was 29 he was done in the big leagues. He had one season of 100+ RBIs and he was named to the all-star team once. Of course he did play a few of those seasons when pitchers dominated the game.
Lots of people do not like him as an announcer. There is even a website that is focused on getting him fired. I'm not a White Sox fan, but I find him to be fine in the booth. Maybe I'm biased because I caddied for him once as a teenager when we has trying to be a golfer. He wore the ugliest Yellow Pages shirt and pants combination that day.
When thinking back on announcers in Chicago, the reason that Hawk is on the list that I like is simple - he played the game and he talks about when he played the game. Lots of people don't like that he rambles on about Ted Williams and others, but that's perfect for the slow pace of games.
I'll take the former athlete over the polished journalism major anytime, as long as I can understand what they are saying.
I like Hawk except when he gets all quiet. Otherwise, he and Stone are a nice yin-yang pair.
ReplyDeleteI know he only had one good season and a couple decent half-seasons . . . but apparently, he was the BMOC in Boston. I thought I had this very card, and I just checked, but I don't. (I bought a couple Hawk cards a few years ago, and I don't know where they are, but one was a Kellogg's.) Anyway, I like the history. The numbers and metrics are cool . . . but I can go to Fangraphs and download them if I wanted to.