If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say, Come Sit Here Next to Me

If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, Come Sit Next to Me

Hawk Harrelson announced this week that he’s only going to do 20 games next year, and that’s it, a broadcast career of 34 years with the White Sox will draw to a close.  Too bad it’s 34 years too late.

I have no problem with Harrelson being an unabashed homer; that’s not a bar to greatness behind the microphone.  What I’ve never been able to abide is what a company man he always was.  Consider a story he told on the air last year, about the 1994 baseball strike.  The Hawk claims that, on the eve of the strike, players were coming up to him and asking him what they should do.  Why, don’t blindly follow their leader Donald Fehr, of course.  No, players should have submitted to a salary cap, as Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf wanted.  Reindsorf is credited with being one of if the biggest power behind the throne sat upon by then-commissioner Bud Selig, and what a load of bad advice Jerry the Puppeteer gave.

The owners didn’t get their salary cap, but they did get a damaged product once play resumed the next spring.  (Just to show what a bad sport he could be, Reinsdorf stuck it to the other owners by signing Albert Belle to a $55 million contract.  So much for the idea of salary control).  The Sox had a wonderful team in 1994, good enough to be in first place in their division.  Could they have made it to the World Series?  We’ll never know.  With an alienated fan base, baseball leadership sat by as players took it upon themselves to “juice up” the game, so to speak.  Could the Steroids Era been avoided had there been no strike?  We’ll never know.

But one thing is for certain: Hawk Harrelson will never entertain the possibility, not as long as he’s on the air.