Hawk Harrelson Goes Silent For Toronto Walk-Off
When we relaunched Awful Announcing, we decided that Hawk Harrelson was such an abomination to announcing that he had to go on our Mount Rushmore of bad announcers. For a week or so we had him up but opted to remove him given a lot feedback that he was too unknown to be "honored" that way. If you haven't been subjected to Harrelson calling White Sox games on WGN, it's quite an infuriating experience. We're not the only ones who are quick to find the mute button as GQ rated Harrelson and his partner the worst MLB broadcast booth.
"Hawk is an unbearable homer, and at very, very least he doesn't hide it. When the Sox score a run, it's "1-0 good guys!" In the midst of a play, rooting for a positive White Sox outcome, he'll yell, "Stretch! Stretch! Get over his head!" And when a player doesn't let him down, he'll give him an "atta boy." Listening to Hawk is just an immensely grating experience (we'll leave Steve Stone out of this), and it is only compounded by his attempts at folksiness. In an interleague series, the Nationals are the "Nasty Nats." A pitch on the handle of the bat is "jam city." And when a player strikes out, "he gone!" Let's just say Hawk's mouth might be put to better use as the tail end of a human centipede"
To his credit, Harrelson has never felt the need to change his style or hide his passion as a fan. This couldn't be more evident in this walk-off win for the Blue Jays at the hands of Harrelson's Sox. You really don't ever find calls this jaded and enthusiastic, even if it's for the opposing team. But for Harrelson it's just business as usual. H/T to Bubbaprog and Mock Session
Raftery is unwatchable, to me. One of the few in the Tourney this year that I muted. "Onions" is fine. But he's getting to be all-schtick, which sucks because they man really, really knows the game. Why does every comment have to end with him sounding like he's passing a stone?
@scottbergen i know what you mean. i don't know if you've been on "vault.ncaa.com", but i'm on there a lot and i've heard his announcing over the years. he's gets goofier every year.
ONIONS! Great job with Raf. And no, the site shouldn't and should never be about ONLY knocking bad announcing. It doesn't need to lend itself to appeasing the lowest common denominators and trolls. Let's leave that for jerkoffs at Deadspin.
Nothing against Raftery; he's one of my favorite announcers (they butchered him in College Hoops 2k6 with canned lines, though), but I'm confused because I thought this site was devoted to bashing bad announcing.
@PhilipJCallado That's a big part of AA, but the site isn't just about bad announcing. We do a lot of other stories involving news and analysis on sports media, and even spotlight some of the best announcers too. Since AA moved to Bloguin last Summer, we've been able to do more things with a great site. These interviews are hopefully a way for readers to hear directly from some of the best announcers out there. Thanks for stopping by.
