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Saturday flashback: Classic Hawk Harrelson

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White Sox announcer Ken Harrelson received plenty of attention for an epic rant during Wednesday’s game. It hardly was the first time he vented in the booth.

In the spirit of celebrating Hawk, we offer these classics.

Here he goes off on umpire Joe West.

Here is a 1991 game in which Joe Brinkman makes a horrible call that costs the Sox a game. Harrelson really starts to lose it around the 3:20 mark, and check the expression on his face when they show him and Tom Paciorek in the booth. Vintage disgust.

And to better understand Harrelson, here’s a segment that ran on MLB’s The Club, featuring the White Sox.

A first for sports TV: NBC’s Sunday Night Football first in primetime

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This news is all you need to know about the power of sports on television these days:

With the conclusion of the 2011-12 television season this week, NBC’s Sunday Night Football topped all primetime entertainment programming to become the first sports series to finish the full fall-spring TV season as the most-watched show in primetime, according to The Nielsen Company.

Sunday Night Football averaged 21.5 million viewers and 20.9 million viewers for its games during the official TV season which ran from Sept. 19, 2011 through May 23, 2012. American Idol ranked second.  Sunday Night Football was also the top-ranked primetime program for the television season in household rating, and all key adult and male demographics.

Additional TV highlights from the 2011 NFL season:

  • Super Bowl XLVI on NBC was the most-watched program in U.S. television history.
  • The AFC and NFC Championship Games accounted for the most-watched Championship Sunday in 30 years.
  • Divisional Playoff weekend was the most watched ever, with Giants-Packers on FOX ranking as the most-watched Divisional Playoff game in history.
  • The Steelers-Broncos playoff game on CBS was the most-watched Wild Card game ever.
  • FOX posted its most-watched NFL season ever.
  • CBS posted its second-most watched NFL season since acquiring the AFC package.
  • ESPN’s Monday Night Football was the most-watched series on cable for the sixth consecutive year.
  • NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football posted its most-watched season ever.

 

Layoffs in USA Today sports: McCarthy, Weir, Pedulla out

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Michael McCarthy and Tom Weir were the USA Today staffers who lost their jobs today. Tom Pedulla, USA Today’s horse racing writer, also got the boot. Bad timing for him considering I’ll Have Another will be going for the Triple Crown at the Belmont in a few weeks.

Eric Fisher and John Ourand of Street and Smith’s Sports Business Daily report:

USA Today Sports Media Group has enacted a significant restructuring of its editorial roster that has resulted in the departures of about a dozen veteran staffers of the media outlet, including sports business and media writer Michael McCarthy and “Game On” blogger Tom Weir. Company officials declined to say how many staffers overall were affected in the move. But ultimately, the company’s sports editorial staff is expected to post a net increase, particularly with the arrival later this year of its joint venture with MLBAM. “This process was about redefining and reimagining Sports and the roles within it to create a center of excellence and build a great sports franchise,” said USA Today Sports Media Group President Tom Beusse. “With this new structure, we are now well-positioned to operate in a 24-7 digital environment. This is a major step forward.”

Sounds of silence from Hawk Harrelson

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Awful Announcing was somewhat incredulous that White Sox announcer Ken “Hawk” Harrelson went silent for a minute last night. Harrelson didn’t say a word after Jhonny Peralta hit a two-run, ninth inning homer to give Detroit a 5-4 victory over the Sox.

Sox fans get it. It was a brutal defeat. The silence spoke volumes for what Harrelson and Sox fans were feeling at that moment.

BRUUUUTALLLLL!