MINNEAPOLIS – It seemed like a good time to check in on The Hawk.
No one lived and breathed the White Sox more than Ken Harrelson, the retired Hall of Fame broadcaster. There is no bigger fan.
Maybe it’s a good thing he and wife Aris had been at their Florida home until they returned to Granger, Ind., two days ago. Until watching the Sox’ 7-0 loss to the Twins Monday, Harrelson had followed his beloved online, reading box scores and reports and communicating via other channels as his South Side nine crumbled to an embarrassing 3-19 start.
“I’ve never been associated with anything even close to this as a player and announcer,” Harrelson told the Sun-Times Tuesday.
“It’s been ugly and I feel bad for our fans, I really do. You can’t hide any of this.”
Harrelson’s message to them?
“I know it’s tough for our fans to be going through what they’re going through but it will change,” he said.
The Sox have been shut out eight times, a major league record through 22 games. Their top two players are injured. The ace of their pitching staff was traded before the season began.
Harrelson said there is no such thing as a baseball expert, “but we’ve got fans in the stands who know as much as I do or the managers or coaches or anybody else, because [available information] has changed so much.”
Harrelson knows the owner will get little sympathy from said fans, and he has remained close with chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who, as he tries to get a deal done for a new stadium, is catching much of the blame for the franchise’s plummet from division champion only three seasons ago.
“It always reverts back to the owner, whether good, bad, cheap or extravagant,” Harrelson said.
“But I know how much he wants to win. I know Jerry very well. There is nobody who feels worse about it. He lost [millions] million last year and this year has the [18th] highest payroll [among 30 teams, per Spotrac].
“If you’re going to lose [millions] and get 1,000 fans like they had at the end of that doubleheader [last Wednesday] that’s a hard way to make money.”
When the Sox were losing in their last rebuild, the fanbase embraced the tanking and promise offered by a stocked farm system. But it’s not the same now. And trust in ownership and the front office has eroded.
“My message is, there is a new adventure for them, because if they hang with us it will change,” Harrelson said.
“Can it get any [bleeping] worse? It can’t get worse.”
Harrelson, meanwhile, said he thought first-year broadcaster John Schriffen “was very good.”
“He handled the [3-18 record] going into it well. As tough as it is [for reporters to] write about, it’s tough to broadcast.”
Harrelson can relate to struggling teams, but nothing like Schriffen is right now, he said.
“He handled the game well,” Harrelson said. “Didn’t try to be a comedian or fool me or the fans. He was telling it like it was. A good announcer, you can tell by his inflection, the way he speaks, and I told my wife I was really impressed with him.”
The Sox are a tough watch but Harrelson planned to tune in Tuesday, he said.
“The reason I’m watching is the announcer,” he said.
“He impressed me very much, as a rookie, how he handled it. With his tone, wasn’t trying to tell me something that was bull [crap]. I don’t care for those who do.”
Harrelson, who retired after the 2018 season, doesn’t have the same jump in his step as he used to – he hasn’t played a round of golf in five years, he said – and he’s obeying doctors’ orders after taking a fall last year.
“I’m 82 but you put a speedometer on my ass and I’m 104 with what I’ve been through,” he said. “All the multiple athletics I played and fights I’ve had. Fortunately, I won most of them.”