I covered the White Sox for three years in the late 80s. I spent a lot of time around Jerry Reinsdorf. I always found him interesting and extremely candid.
Nothing has changed on both fronts more than 25 years later.
I was driving in the car Saturday morning and heard the Sox owner on Talkin’ Baseball with Bruce Levine and Fred Huebner on WMVP-AM 1000.
The subject of Ken Harrelson’s broadcast style came up. Friday, he nearly fell out of the booth calling Jordan Danks’ walk-off homer.
As usual, Reinsdorf spoke with complete candor.
In fact, Reinsdorf said if it was up to him, Harrelson probably would have a much different approach to the Sox broadcasts.
From Reinsdorf:
(Harrelson is) a homer. There are a lot of people who don’t like that style of broadcasting. When I grew up in New York, there were no homers. We had Mel Allen and Red Barber. They played it straight down the middle.
I came to Chicago in 1957. I heard Jack Quinlan and Jack Brickhouse rooting for their teams. I thought that was awful, absolutely awful. There were a lot of people in Chicago who didn’t root for the local teams.
I remember saying to myself, ‘If I had the opportunity (to own a team), I would not have a homer in the booth.’
Reinsdorf did buy the Sox in 1981 and was subjected to one of the game’s great homers, Harry Caray, for a season. He eventually let Caray go to the Cubs after the season, a decision that’s still a matter of great debate in Chicago.
Reinsdorf continues:
We hired Don Drysdale and Ken Harrelson in 1982. We said, ‘We don’t want homerism. We want you to play this right down the middle, a network-quality broadcast.’
Our fans absolutely hated that. Chicago fans want their announcers to root for their teams.
I unleashed them. I said, ‘Go ahead and root.’
If it were up to me, there wouldn’t be homerism. It’s not up to me. It’s up to the fans and they get what they want.
Reinsdorf, though, somewhat compromises his argument when he brings up watching games on MLB’s Extra Innings package.
Reinsdorf said:
Most of those broadcasts are boring. They don’t have any exciting personalities at all.
Boring? Again appreciate the candor, Jerry.
I have to agree with him. There are a lot of dull telecasts out there.
But Jerry, doesn’t Hawk’s unique style make him more interesting? Would he be as compelling if he played it straight? I don’t think so.
You can say plenty about Harrelson, but nobody will ever call him dull.
Even though Harrelson can be overbearing at times, I cringe at the thought of what the Sox broadcasts might be like after he is gone. Most other broadcasters around the league are boring. I’m also not too fond of the Sox radio broadcast team, much for the same reason…
And while I like the Hawk and Stoney lineup, I also have appreciated how much more lively Hawk has been the last few games while working with Tom Paciorek.
Dag nabbit….there is NO WAY that I am a homer. If I didn’t have bad luck I wouldn’t have any luck at all. The Sox get taken by the boys in blue every single game and they are still in first place….YES! As I’ve always said (at some point during the season)….every Sox player is the greatest of all-time. Even going back to my days as a start in Boston in the 1930’s I cannot remember a team that played THIS hard and was THIS close. Well, except for 2005 and 2001 and 1998 and 1997, but you get the point. HELL YES! This article is under protest. Just like I’ve put many games under protest during a live broadcast. You’ve gotta be bleepin’ me. Anyway, now that I’m ticked off I’m just going to go silent for the rest of the inning.
P.S. can of corn, sacks packed with sox, stretch, you can put it on the board, duck snort, 4 ball base hit, grinder, Big Frank….
I am a diehard Yankee fan but lived in Chicago from 1999-2002 without a way to watch out of town games. My TV options were the White Sox or Cubs. I can say, unequivocally, that I watched the White Sox because their broadcasts (with Hawk and DJ) were so damn entertaining. The team was young and not very good then, but I tuned in nonetheless.
I used to watch almost every Cubs game that was on WGN. I LOVED the team of Chip Caray and Steve Stone. Stone is the best analyst in baseball, bar none. While the White Sox are lucky to have him, he should have a much more prominent role. He’d be a great replacement for the aging (and much maligned) Tim McCarver.
Reindorf is full of it. He say’s if were up to him he would’nt have it guess what Jerry it is , you own part of the team do something about it.i’ve talk to some friends and cousins and as I do they hate his style !