I don't know if it's the pressure of a tight pennant race or his failing eyesight or what, but Hawk Harrelson has had some trouble with his home run calls lately.
Did you watch Sunday's game?
Around the fifth inning or so, White Sox third baseman Juan Uribe hit a routine fly to left field. Harrelson, apparently thinking the ball was hit much harder than it was, started yelling, "Get on up there in that wind! Stretch!"
Meanwhile, the ball settled in the glove of Kansas City's David DeJesus, who made the catch in medium deep left field, probably 80 feet in front of the wall.
Did Harrelson really think that ball had a chance? Really? If so, that's embarrassing.
Two innings later, Sox first baseman Paul Konerko connected for a no-doubt homer that gave the South Siders the final margin of victory in a 3-0 win.
DeJesus knew the ball was gone. He turned and gave it only a courtesy look. Meanwhile, Harrelson bellowed, "Get on back there! Stretch!" The ball cleared the fence by probably 30-40 feet. Apparently, Hawk was concerned it wouldn't.
Harrelson is definitely slipping on his home run calls.
I heard the White Sox honored Hawk Harrelson by having Hawk Harrelson Night on Tuesday night. This is a joke. If anyone wants to know why the White Sox are a terrible franchise, this idiotic decision is proof positive.
First of all, no team have a night for a PBP announcer unless he is retired. Unfortunately for baseball fans, he will retire when he dies. Second of all, what exactly did he ever do to earn a night?
He is a lousy announcer. He butchers the English language. He never works well with his analysts. His whining with the umpires on White Sox telecast is terrible. His anti-Twins gibberish comes off unprofessional. Who can forget Hawk acting petulant the night Torii Hunter knocked Jamie Burke on the ground? He went on and on and on the rest of the game, and just never shut up the rest of that 2004 season.
His homerism is a joke.
Not only he is a lousy announcer, but he was a lousy general manager. It's amusing he is honored never mind he fired folks like Roland Hemond, Dave Dombrowski and Tony La Russa when he got the GM gig in 1986. This guy traded Bobby Bonilla for some scrub named Jose DeLeon. Yeah that's something to be honored off. I mean what type of organization go out of its way to honor a guy or give him another job after doing a terrible job as GM? Does any corporations or organizations do this stuff? No.
Hawks was a lousy person to boot. He stabbed Tom Paciorek in the back by getting him fired. He couldn't get along with Darrin Jackson. He picked fights with Jay Mariotti. He wanted to go fight with Kent Hrbek in the dugout. He also challenged Phil Garner.
Yeah here's something for an organization to be proud of.
It's only fitting not many people showed up for Hawk Harrelson night. Who wants to see a clown get hired?
It's only fitting the team honored Hawk by playing like dogs against the Tigers.
This type of decision is why the White Sox are an amateur franchise. Please don't make me laugh about how the White Sox are above this type of stuff.