Hawk Harrelson is one of the most distinctive characters that has ever graced an announcing booth.  Whether you love him or hate him or have varying emotions about his tenure as an announcer depending on the day, you have to recognize his contributions to the game and to the White Sox franchise over the years.  The Hawk is one-of-a-kind… for better and worse.

Well according to the Chicago Tribune, the Hawk Harrelson era may be beginning to wind down.  The longtime White Sox broadcaster who has been associated with the team for most of the last 30+ years will cut back on his television schedule beginning next season:

White Sox TV play-by-play announcer Ken “Hawk” Harrelson confirmed Monday that he plans to cut back on his 2016 schedule.

Harrelson, who has been in the Sox TV booth for 31 seasons, said by phone he didn’t want to give further information because the deal hadn’t been finalized and he wanted to wait for the team to provide details.

Bruce Levine of WSCR-AM 670 reported that Harrelson will only work road games, along with a limited slate of home games, including opening day and the Cubs series at U.S. Cellular Field.

Harrelson, 74, commutes from his home in Granger, Ind., to Sox home games, approximately 100 miles one way, and he said that is among the reasons he would cut back. He said spending more time with his family also is a factor.

Here’s the tweet from Levine, which says Harrelson will work quite the unique arrangement – a full schedule of road games with only a couple home games mixed in.

Usually when broadcasters in the twilight of their career make a cutback to their schedule, it’s the road games that go by the wayside first.  But if Hawk is making a 200 mile round trip commute from northwest Indiana, the road travel may actually be more amenable.

Cutting back on half of his schedule will certainly be a jolt for fans of the South Siders and those of us who have closely followed Hawk’s, well, colorful commentary throughout the years.

We’ll admit that once he’s gone, we’ll miss Hawk too.  (Hey, he’s provided us a lot of great content over the years!)  Baseball just simply will not be the same without legendary clips like this, so we better enjoy having Hawk Harrelson while we got him.

[Chicago Tribune]

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