twins/mlb
No. 1 homer TV announcer in MLB? You can put it on the board ...
Posted by: Vince Tuss under Baseball, MLB, Twins, Twins game coverage, Vikings Updated: September 26, 2012 - 8:16 PM
If you ever doubted the homer abilities of Ken "Hawk" Harrelson as a TV announcer, go no further than the Wall Street Journal, which ranked the White Sox team as the TV announcing team in major league baseball with the most biased comments.
What exactly constitutes biased comments? That includes the use of the word "we." (Vikings radio announcer Paul Allen, some people are looking at you.) Also, pet names for players, excessive celebrating or moping.
In this review of one game of each baseball team, Harrelson accounted for 104 comments. The next highest total? 23, from the Cleveland TV team of Matt Underwood and Rick Manning. In fact, Harrelson's total is more than all the other American League teams' announcers COMBINED. OK, the White Sox count includes partner Steve Stone, but if the split is anything less than 100-4, color me shocked.
Harrelson, as you might expect, had no qualms. His comments to Journal reporter Jared Diamond: "You just made my day. That's the biggest compliment you could give me, to call me the biggest homer in baseball."
Need more evidence? Here is Harrelson's rant against umpire Matt Wegner from earlier in the season:
Small teams made the bulk of the teams following the White Sox. After a handful of teams in the double digits, the Twins TV announcers of Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven ranked in a group with the Orioles, Nationals, Phillies and Padres with nine comments.
The WSJ review cited an example for each team, and the Minnesota example might underwhelm: "I hope there's no suspense. A nice, methodical win would be nice." Yes, Minnesotans used nice twice.
Bremer also offers as defense of homerism: "Former players have tremendous equity in the franchise they played for. From their perspective, I could imagine a strong desire to do well." Apparently, he didn't work in the words "major-league level."
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| Chicago Cubs | 3 | Bottom 7th Inning |
| Pittsburgh | 5 |
| Detroit | 3 | Top 9th Inning |
| Cleveland | 1 |
| NY Yankees | 2 | Bottom 9th Inning |
| Baltimore | 2 |
| Tampa Bay | 4 | Bottom 8th Inning |
| Toronto | 2 |
| Cincinnati | 4 | Bottom 9th Inning |
| NY Mets | 0 |
| Philadelphia | 7 | Bottom 8th Inning |
| Miami | 2 |
| Minnesota | 2 | Top 5th Inning |
| Atlanta | 3 |
| Oakland | 1 | Top 6th Inning |
| Texas | 0 |
| Los Angeles | 2 | Bottom 4th Inning |
| Milwaukee | 1 |
| Boston | 0 | Bottom 6th Inning |
| Chicago WSox | 2 |
| Kansas City | 0 | Top 6th Inning |
| Houston | 3 |
| Arizona | 0 | Bottom 4th Inning |
| Colorado | 4 |
| Seattle - A. Harang | 9:05 PM |
| LA Angels - J. Williams |
| St. Louis - A. Wainwright | 9:10 PM |
| San Diego - E. Volquez |
| Washington - S. Strasburg | 9:15 PM |
| San Francisco - M. Cain |
| Memphis | 23 | 2nd Qtr 8:22 |
| San Antonio | 24 |
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