I don’t remember exactly when I really got into the Chicago White Sox. But here are a few things I do remember:

• I liked them peripherally for a while in the early 90s and then my White Sox fandom began in earnest while I was in high school, and I’m pretty sure KVB and I got into the White Sox at around the same time (although he may have been a fan first…you’ll have to ask him).
• My favorite players from those early years were Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, Black Jack, Ray Durham, Mike Cameron, James Baldwin, and Roberto Hernandez.
• From the first moment I heard Hawk Harrelson call a game, I was hooked.

(For the record, what I do remember from my early baseball years is that I hated the Cubs long before I ever loved the White Sox, simply because so many of my Indiana friends loved the Cubs and I could never understand it. They received so much adulation yet never seemed to win anything. I wasn’t about to offer any more undeserved adoration.)

I realize that Hawk takes a lot of grief for being an unabashed homer, for sometimes telling long and sprawling stories about guys like Ted Williams and George Brett, for firing Tony LaRussa during the Hawk’s ill-fated tenure as White Sox GM, and for sometimes talking about things that make you wonder if he’s doing okay. Plus, we all know that he likes to make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. (Well, not really the question mark…more like batting gloves. And that actually doesn’t seem to be such an outrageous claim after all.)

But…and it’s a big BUT…for the life of me I cannot understand how any White Sox fan does not enjoy listening to a Hawk-called game over a road announcer or one of the national schmoes they trot out on ESPN or Fox.

I started thinking about this today when I went searching online for a list of Hawkisms that KVB needed for a gift he’s making a friend of his and a friend of the South Siders. I unwittingly stumbled upon the unfortunately named website HeaveTheHawk.com. As you might expect, the creators of this website are not big fans of Hawk for the reasons mentioned above and many more.

Now, I don’t know much about this site nor do I have the time or inclination to go digging. (And for all you haters out there, I am blatantly violating journalistic ethics and integrity by not reaching to them for a comment before publishing this. If you’ve got something to say about, email me.) It appears as if they are White Sox fans, but I suppose it’s possible that it’s a bunch of Cubs fans looking to poke fun at the TV face of White Sox baseball. I have no idea.

All I know is that I disagree wholeheartedly with their “Manifesto“. I do know that one of their gripes is that Hawk Harrelson never played for the White Sox, as evidenced by this excerpt from their page “10 Reasons Why the Hawk Must Go”:

3. Hillbilly. The fair city of Chicago is the third largest media market in the country. So why must we listen to a South Carolinian carnival barker with NO White Sox connection? But wait, he was GM, you say? Yes, read on.

I have never lived in Chicago, so perhaps there is more of this sentiment floating around than I realize. But I consider myself about as die-hard a Sox fan as they come (though, admittedly, not as die hard as these guys or these guys) and I’ve certainly never once thought of Hawk as a “South Carolinian carnival barker.” Plus, what exactly does Hawk need to do to develop a “White Sox connection”? The guy’s been with the White Sox for as long as I’ve been following them. Sure, he didn’t play on the South Side, but doesn’t he have more of a White Sox connection than, say, Mike Cameron, who was only with the White Sox for a couple of seasons? How exactly do we define “having a connection”?

Anyway, I don’t want to make this a long and drawn-out post, and the truth is that I can’t because two of my best friends from Indiana are flying into town tonight (they’re in the air as I type this) so I have to actually put the blog toy away for a little while. But seeing that ugly website earlier today made me feel compelled to throw some support behind my man Hawk. White Sox games just aren’t as fun when Hawk isn’t announcing, telling balls to “stretch”, imploring the scorekeeper to “put it on the board”, and giving opposing batters their proper “he gone” send off after a strikeout.

Yeah, Hawk’s a huge homer. Probably the biggest one in all of baseball. So I can understand why a non-White Sox fan might abhor him. But for Sox fans to not like him? That I do not understand, and I’d like to get some feedback. If you’re a White Sox fan, what do you think of Hawk? Surely you love the guy, right? I can’t be this wrong about our fan base, can I? (And if you’re not a White Sox fan…be gone! I’m sure you don’t like him, so you can spare me the trite Hawk criticisms that I’ve already discussed.)

But before you head down to the comment section, sit back, relax, and strap it down as I offer you one of the only redeeming aspects of HeaveTheHawk.com. It’s a sublime song that lists out pretty much all of Hawk’s most famous Hawkisms. I’m assuming it’s meant to be a sarcastic dig at Hawk, and it’s certainly not all that great musically, but it’s still awesome. So click here and check it out.

And then send the creators of HeaveTheHawk.com some hate email. Because, as well know, Hawk looooves email, and I’m sure he’d love knowing that White Sox fans have his back. Say what you will about him, but he has a more tenured association with the White Sox now than anyone but Jerry Reinsdorf. And as far as I’m concerned, I hope he never gets “heaved”, because White Sox games just wouldn’t be as much fun without him.

I agree with the guys at HeaveTheHawk.com that listening to Ed Farmer on the radio is great. But nobody compares to Hawk Harrelson. And unlike the guys at HeaveTheHawk.com, I say that in the most positive context possible.

Hawk…you rule.

What do you think of Hawk Harrelson?

• Love him
• Heave him
• Greatest. Announcer. Ever.

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