A Bad Influence

Clare texted Friday night during the Sox-Mariners’ game to ask, “Who’s that broadcasting with Hawk Harrelson?  He’s terrible.”  Former Sox player and broadcaster Tom Paciorek was back in the booth for the Seattle series.  Paciorek did the color on Sox games from 1988-1999.

Clare was catching Paciorek at his worst, which is to say alongside Harrelson.  Basically, everything that came out of Paciorek’s mouth was a variation of “You’re right, Hawk.”  Worse, he joined in on Harrelson’s journeys into the baseball twilight zone.  For example, “Wimpy” and “Hawkeroo” [the nicknames they call one another by] went on over the course of two nights on the subject of “short arms” and hitting.  From what I could gather, it matters where you place your elbows.  Who knew?

The thing of it is, Paciorek can be very good.  He has what we in the tribe of Polonia appreciate as a sharp wit, and a self-deprecating one at that.  Last year, Paciorek was also paired for a few games with new Sox announcer Jason Benetti, and it was a revelation, the best television I’d heard on a Sox broadcast in decades.  Paciorek can tell a story, e.g., facing Goose Gossage at Yankee Stadium, that leaves me wishing Harrelson had been the one to leave in 1999.

On top of that, Paciorek demonstrated extraordinary courage in 2002 when he came out and accused a Catholic priest of abusing him and three of his brothers.  When Paciorek learned that the priest had been appointed pastor to a parish in rural Michigan [the Pacioreks grew up in and around Detroit], he couldn’t keep quiet any longer.  The priest was removed.

So, I cut the man some slack and hope that he finds his way into the booth again to pair up with Benetti for Sox home games.  Hope springs eternal, as they say.