Believe it or not, one of the bigger stories of the baseball week -- maybe the biggest before Johan Santana's no-no -- involved an announcer. That's because White Sox announcer Ken "Hawk" Harrelson went ballistic on an umpire over the air and was then scolded by MLB commissioner Bud Selig. And now, another development: Hawk tried to apologize to the umpire, Mark Wegner.
"I felt bad about it to a degree after I sat down and thought about it," Harrelson said (ESPN Chicago). "I called and left a message for him."
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"Hawk and [White Sox chairman Jerry] Reinsdorf came into see me, and Hawk was very sincere with his comments about what he had said," West said (ESPN Chicago). "He told me 'Joe, I would rather have a fistfight with you then go through what I have over the last few days.' What Hawk did showed a lot of class, and we really appreciate that he called Mark as well. This is a good day for everyone in baseball."
The tirade in question came after White Sox pitcher Jose Quintana was tossed from the game after a seemingly retaliatory pitch in the direction of Ben Zobrist of the Rays. White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski was plunked the previous inning, but no warnings were made.
And then Harrelson said this:
"What are you doing? He threw him out of the ballgame, you've got to be bleepin' me! What in the hell are you doing? What are you doing Wegner? You got to be kidding me. That is so bad that is absolutely brutal. That is unbelievable. I'll tell you what, they have got to start making guys be accountable. That is totally absurd. Here's an umpire in the American League that knows nothing about the game of baseball. They have got to do something about this. They have got some guys in this league that have no business umpiring. They have no business umpiring because they don't know what the game of baseball is about."
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