Hawk Harrelson is a finalist for the Ford Frick Award - MLB

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.

TORONTO — The Blue Jays clinched a postseason berth Thursday without taking the field.

Toronto was assured of an AL wild card berth when the Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-3.

If Toronto holds its current position as the first of the AL’s three wild cards, the Blue Jays would open a best-of-three wild-card series at Rogers Centre next week.

“These guys are excited to be in this position,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after Wednesday’s 8-3 loss to the New York Yankees. “You’ve got three really good pitchers lined up against a good Boston team, playing at home. So I think it’s more excitement more than it’s nerves or anything. I think the guys are going to come out and be ready to roll on Friday night.”

Toronto became the fourth AL team to clinch a playoff berth, joining division champions Houston, the Yankees and Cleveland. The Astros and Yankees have first-round byes.

The Blue Jays last went to the playoffs in 2020, when they were knocked out with two straight losses to Tampa Bay.

Eight of the 12 berths in the expanded postseason have been clinched: The Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis earned division titles, and Atlanta and the New York Mets are assured no worse the wild cards while still competing to win the NL East. The Dodgers have a first-round bye.