Hawk Harrelson

Baseball’s most notorious homer has found room in his heart for another team.

Harrelson watches every postseason game at his Florida home, and he pulls for the Cubs. Why?

“One, it’s great for our city,” Harrelson said Thursday by telephone. “Two, it will make us (the White Sox) HAVE to get better. It will make our guys HAVE to play harder. If you think (Chairman) Jerry Reinsdorf will sit around and spend the remainder of his time in baseball playing second fiddle to them, you have another thing coming.

“I played for Cleveland and have never, ever rooted for a National League team to win theWorld Series until this year. To me, it’s common sense.”

So there you have it. Rooting for the Cubs is, in Harrelson’s mind, rooting for the White Sox, so it makes perfect sense.

White Sox fans on the whole seem to be struggling with whether to root for the Cubs. Many, including the team itself, are cheering for their North-Side rivals out of Chicago pride, whereas others are passionately opposing them.

Buried in the Tribune’s piece about Harrelson’s World Series preferences is the revelation that Hawk will be back in the booth next season for road games, as he was in 2016.

Harrelson, who is quite polarizing (as in, loved White Sox fans and hated by just about everyone else), used to call all Sox games, but he cut back before last season, with Jason Benetti replacing him for the majority of home games.

[Chicago Tribune]

 

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.