Ken “Hawk” Harrelson will forever be remembered in White Sox history after he retires following the 2018 season. For the past two years, as Hawk has grown older, his work load has been on the steady decline. He now usually does road trips only, as Steve Stone and newcomer Jason Benetti have taken on the homestand workloads. White Sox fans have had mixed reactions when it comes to Hawk, but the bottom line is that he is a legend. With endless stories, numerous rants, and a great sense of humor, Hawk truly has been one of the best in the business.
In no particular order, lets look back at some of Hawk’s most memorable moments.
“What Are You Doing Wegner?!”
In one of Hawk’s most famous rants, he explodes on umpire Mark Wegner after he tossed Jose Quintana out of the game for throwing behind Rays batter Ben Zobrist. For context, a White Sox batter was pegged the inning before and no warning was issued to either side. Quintana left the game with a lead, but alas, he received the first of many notorious no decisions.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! History!
Not much needs to be said here. Mark Buehrle went 27 up, 27 down for his second career no-hitter and first career perfect game. The rest as they say, is history.
What A Play By Wise!
Same game, different epic call. When this ball was in the air, you can just hear the shock in Hawk’s voice. He instantly thought the Perfect Game was a thing of the past the second the ball was launched into orbit. Not on Dewayne Wise’s watch. He covered an unbelievable amount of ground, perfectly timed his jump, and made probably the best Perfect Game saving catch in MLB History.
Number 500!!!!
We have all heard a lot of Hawk Harrelson home run calls, but this could definitely be his No. 1. It came at home, was a walk-off shot and happened to be the 500th home run for slugger Jim Thome — Hawk seemed to feed off the energy of the crowd and the team as he made this particular call.
Joe West Needs A Rest
Ah yes, who could forget the power hungry Joe West. It seemed this guy had it out for everyone in baseball, but the White Sox in particular.
Here we have a little bit of everything: Ozzie getting tossed, Buehrle getting tossed, Konerko and A.J getting heated, and even the radio reactions of Ed Farmer and Darren Jackson.
Mark Buehrle had one of the better pickoff moves in all of baseball. It’s one of the many things that factored into his Gold Glove-caliber defense. Clearly no balk was made either time, and Hawk Harrelson (and others) went on another memorable rant.
Forever Remembered
We still have the rest of this season and at least 20 games next year to enjoy Hawk. Still, it’s really a shame that we will not be able to see him call games when all of the young up and comers will be on the South Side.
Most announcers these days are solely analytical, but Hawk’s passion and enthusiasm has never once been in question. White Sox fans should have no problem remembering Hawk’s antics and love for the game. Accepting the fact that he is leaving soon? That’s a different story.
From White Sox fans around the world, thank you, Hawk. It’s been one hell of a ride.
