(670 The Score) Hawk Harrelson first joined the White Sox organization ahead of the 1982 season, when he began broadcasting work for them. Save for a detour of a few years, Harrelson has been associated with the organization ever since.
Harrelson retired from broadcasting after the 2018 season, but he remains an ambassador for the club. He also continues to watch them religiously, and it’s with that in mind that Harrelson offered some high praise for the White Sox during an interview on the Mully & Haugh Show on Wednesday morning.
“I told Kenny (Williams), and I told Rick (Hahn) and Jerry (Reinsdorf), in all my years, I was here in ’82 with the White Sox, in all my years here, this is the most talent we have ever put on the field in position players,” Harrelson said. “Now, ’05 was the best four starters we ever put out there. ’83, we had some good starters too. But these guys are having fun.”
The White Sox are averaging just shy of 5.0 runs per game, which ranks 11th in MLB. They’ve been on a power surge of late, and their 55 homers are third in the league.
Harrelson believes it starts with shortstop Tim Anderson.
“Tim Anderson to me, no question, is the MVP on this ball club,” Harrelson said.
“He is the leader out there on the field, he gets out there and plays his behind off. Everything in baseball is contagious, whether it be going out and winning, going out and losing, whether it be a hot streak, whether it be a cold streak. Everything is contagious. When you get a guy who is a leadoff guy like Tim Anderson and he’s getting on base and he’s causing things to happen, he changes the whole dynamic of a ball game. And that’s what he’s done. The other guys, it frees them up to have some fun and do what they’re doing.
“We’ve never had a lineup like this in all the years that I’ve been here. They are dangerous from one to nine, and that just doesn’t happen very often.”