If you've ever rolled your eyes at a White Sox broadcast and exclaimed "frickin' Hawk," that term now has a whole new meaning. After years of snubbery by the baseball intelligentsia, Ken Harrelson has finally been awarded the Ford C. Frick Award and will be entering the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 25, 2020.
The cases for and against Harrelson are well-worn, so I won't repeat them all here. But suffice to say, Hawk was the voice of baseball for generations of White Sox fans, and oftentimes he was also Sox baseball's only identifiable trait to outsiders for years at a time. The many phrases he coined have made their way into the general baseball lexicon, and at least one of his indelible nicknames is already in Cooperstown.
If you view the Hall of Fame as a museum about baseball history, rather than some grand tomb in which only the immortals may rest, then it's hard to argue Hawk doesn't deserve his place there. But we have about 8 months until induction, in which some people will most certainly try.
Here's Hawk getting the call:
https://twitter.com/whitesox/status/1204809049910468608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Congrats, Hawk. Thanks for everything. I'm looking forward to the waterworks this summer.
