The Wall Street Journal has confirmed what Chicago baseball fans have always known -- White Sox announcer Ken "Hawk" Harrelson is biased.
Harrelson announcing style involves unabashedly rooting for the Sox during games, and consistently using the term "we" -- something that's generally considered taboo amongst announcers.
The newspaper conducted a study by watching one nine-inning game by every Major League Baseball team and counting every time the announcers used the words "we," "us" or "our" to describe the home team, used pet names for the players or actively cheered big plays or brooded after on-field blunders.
The Harrelson-Steve Stone tandem made 104 biased terms during the 2-1 game versus the Texas Rangers, which was by far the most of any other team's announcers. Second place? The Cleveland Indians announcers who were tagged with 23 biased comments.
Not surprisingly, Harrelson reveled in the news, as he's never made any bones about being in the White Sox' corner or made apologies for his announcing style.
"That's the biggest compliment you could give me," Harrelson told the newspaper.
With the Sox in the thick of the pennant race, expect more angst than usual from the announcing booth over the next week.
