I’m just gonna leave this here:
Congratulations to Hawk Harrelson, who has been named a finalist for the 2014 Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting.
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) October 2, 2013
Hey, there are people who like Hawk. They are almost all White Sox fans who, when you press them, talk about Hawk as a “familiar voice” or someone with whom they have nice associations with White Sox baseball. Rarely, however, do they say that they actually think he’s a particularly good announcer. Just that they sort of like him. In this way Harrelson to his fans is a lot like “Fat Bottomed Girls” is for me. Something that makes me feel good when I hear it but, when asked to assess its actual merit in objective terms, well, I can’t really do it.
The Frick Award, though, is not about warm fuzzies felt by a minority of partisans. It’s presented by the National Baseball Hall of Fame to a broadcaster for his or her “major contributions to baseball.” I suppose his introduction of the term “he gone!” has some value — I’ve used that, like, three times on Twitter in the past four years, I believe — but I don’t know if it’s “major.”
Anyway, Good luck, Hawk. I’m sure you’re a nice man and that you’ll say interesting things if you win it.
