[The Professor]

John Rooney and Ed Farmer, the ESPN 1000 guys who do ChiSox radio are pretty solid, I enjoy listening to them quite a bit. I'm not a Cubs fan, mind you, but I don't think Pat Hughes is all that bad -- in fact, I'm inclined to say Hughes is pretty good on WGN Radio. Ron Santo isn't good (in fact, he borders on being awful), but I like him. I can't say why, but there is something pleasant about catching the Cubs on radio. Weird, I know. It certainly beats the Cubs TV guys. Dreadful.

Now, I caught the White Sox game on WGN today -- watched it in its entirety, first time I've done that since I was much younger -- and I realized that there is something endearing about Hawk Harrelson. Yes, the patented home-run call is [really, really, REALLY] annoying, few people will dispute that. But, c'mon, "Hawkspeak" is pretty unique, you know it is, and he has a pleasant voice. Dixie-defined. In today's broadcast he drawled out "ducks on the pond", "in the catbird seat", and a few other old-time broadcasting trademarks that died a few decades ago. Coming from anyone else they'd be dreadful, but Harrelson has the personality (a total homer, over-the-top) and the voice to make them sound appropriate in today's game. I appreciated it. I won't ever care for the automatic "put it on the board, Yessssss!" dreck or "He gone!", but I discovered today that I otherwise enjoy listening to Hawk Harrelson. In my constant search to find baseball broadcasters who are different, Harrelson is anything but vanilla. I've gone over to the dark side.