Fans Vote White Sox TV Announcer Crew Worst In Baseball
By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 27, 2012 10:40PM
For White Sox fans, there's going to be a little bit of change at 35th and Shields this season. One constant will be Ken Harrelson, his Hawkisms, the dead air whenever the Sox are losing by more than three runs or every time he tries to goad Steve Stone into a discussion Stone has no interest in engaging, or screaming "that's how you get yourself a 16,000 square-foot home in Scottsdale" every time Paul Konerko breathes. Sox fans already know that not even the talents of one of the best analysts in baseball can overcome the suck of Ken Harrelson.
Now comes further proof. Starting tomorrow through Thursday, the website FanGraphs.com will announce its rankings of Major League Baseball's television announce teams, leading up to what will likely be another coronation of Vin Scully as the gold standard. Because the Dodgers have two broadcast teams, FanGraphs decided to get the last place crew out of the way today.
Hi, Hawk and Steve. FanGraph said they culled info from fans since late November, based on a scale of 1-5 for charisma, analysis, and overall connection to their tam's fan base. FanGraph's Carson Cistulli writes:
"(J)ust as we become more sensitive to the strengths and flaws and annoying habits of friends and family members and roommates, we become sensitive to those same qualities in our broadcasters. A fan’s appreciation for, or disgust with, his club’s broadcasters is considerably magnified by the level of intimacy involved."
With a charisma ranking of 2.1, an analysis ranking of 2.2 and an overall ranking of 2.0, Cistulli suggests, as many of us Sox fans have long contended, the White Sox broadcasts may be improved by removing Harrelson. Cistulli writes:
"It’d be easier to describe Hawk Harrelson as a “polarizing” figure among FanGraphs readers if there were more respondents who defended him."
Cistulli added there was one reader who wrote a 389 word note on the Harrelson-Stone team that we would love to read.
As for the Cubs broadcast team, if we're reading into what Cistulli writes correctly, Len Kasper and Bob Brenly should rank high. We know a lot of folks don't care for them — Kasper, in particular — but we believe he's one of the better prepared play-by-play men in the game who gets that added burnish from Brenly's take-no-prisoners analysis.