Anyone familiar with Hawk Harrelson's penchant for going totally silent during particularly painful Chicago White Sox moments might sometimes wonder if Harrelson is still in fact alive in the booth. The unabashed homer who's been calling Sox games for two decades is still kicking at the age of 71, but when he does die he wants it to happen in that exact spot.
"I want to die right here in this seat," Harrelson said softly in the booth that he's called home for the past two-plus decades. "That's what I want to do. If I could write my own script, I would die right here in this seat."
Then his voice shifted from softspoken to the familiar baritone that has provided the soundtrack to many a Chicago summer as he calls his imagined final broadcast.
"Verlander on the bump," he began. "Here's the pitch. Konerko hits it. That ball hit hard. Wayyyyyy back … he looks up, you can put it on the boooooard," before hitting his head playfully against his desk while laughing. "That would be it for me," he continues. "And then all of a sudden on my tombstone it says 'He gone.' "
So it doesn't look as though Harrelson will be ready to step away any time soon, despite the fact a lot of fans have become frustrated by how biased he is. At least his vision of the end is sort of romantic in a slightly twisted sort of way and we know Hawk's insane love for the White Sox is real, to the point of wishing to go out during a Paul Konerko home run.
We don't want to speculate on alternatives, but if he keeps losing his shit in the booth like this, this, this and this, anything is in the cards.
[Red Eye]
