Video: Hawk Harrelson, Brian Kenny Debate Sabermetrics

By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 26, 2013 1:45PM

White Sox television announcer Ken Harrelson and MLB Network analyst Brian Kenny had a spirited yet respectful debate on the merits of sabermetrics on “MLB Now” Thursday afternoon. Kenny, a disciple of sabermetrics, argued in favor of baseball teams using statistics to give themselves advantages during game situations. Harrelson, like a child refusing to eat liver and onions, countered that the only statistic that matters is “TWTW” — The Will to Win.

Watch.

Harrelson, as always, rattled off a series of cornpone quotables that will play well with Sox fans who won't cotton to any criticism of the team and its main cheerleader, which Yahoo Sports collected. But "TWTW," admittedly, is especially inspired, so much the White Sox have already coined it as a sort of rallying cry. Here's a photo MLB.com White Sox reporter Scott Merkin captured at U.S. Cellular Field before the game.

Harrelson went off on an anti-sabermetrics rant during the White Sox series in Toronto, calling the practice "the most overrated thing to come into baseball" in the decade, despite more teams adopting elements of statistical analysis into their scouting programs. Harrelson's rant led Kenny to refute him, passionately, on "MLB Now" the following day.