One final Chicago White Sox game together for Hawk and Wimpy
Throughout the season, Sunday is going to be fun day at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Maybe not on the field for the Chicago White Sox, but definitely in the TV broadcast booth.
In his 33rd and final year, Ken "Hawk" Harrelson has scaled back to working Sunday home games, and he often will be paired with a special guest.
Former Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski is scheduled for an August game, and the guess here is Paul Konerko, Frank Thomas, Ozzie Guillen and Mark Buehrle also claim a game with Hawk.
For Sunday's White Sox-Twins matchup, Harrelson reunited with longtime broadcast partner Tom "Wimpy" Paciorek.
The duo called Sox games from 1990-99 and were incredibly popular.
"I get a ton of fan mail," Harrelson said. "With social media, everybody can get your address. The last couple of weeks, I finished two big boxes. I've got two more to go yet, which I'll get to, and 70-75 percent of all the mail I get, they mention Wimpy.
"People say we have so much fun."
They always did, and the trend continued on Sunday's call.
But the final game together for Harrelson and Paciorek also stirred emotions.
"I'm going to say I might want a mulligan on this whole thing," Paciorek said. "Never say never, because I might be back at some point and we'll have this again. I'm not ruling out the possibility because if I did that would make it kind of a sad day for me. So I don't want to rule out the possibility we'll do this again."
If they don't, Harrelson is not going to lose any sleep.
"I love Wimpy like a little brother and always will," Hawk said. "We've had a great time, 10 years we were together, and what's not to like about it? That's the way it is. It really is. It's not a sad thing, it's just another moment in our lives."
Harrelson was in the White Sox's TV booth from 1982-85 before becoming general manager for one year.
After that, Hawk broadcast New York Yankees games for two seasons, and he returned to the White Sox's booth in 1990 and started working with Paciorek.
In 1988-89, Paciorek called Sox games with John Rooney and Gary Thorne.
"Working with Hawk, it was wonderful," Paciorek said. "I learned everything I know about broadcasting from Hawk, how to ask a question in an interview, how to do play-by-play and how to analyze.
"Nothing against John Rooney or Gary Thorne, but they were stereotypical broadcasters who really weren't affluent in the game of baseball. With the Hawk, we're having a conversation about a baseball game, which is more appealing to me.
"Working with Hawk was great; he made it so easy for me to kind of develop into whatever I became."
The way Harrelson hears it, Paciorek became a great broadcaster for the White Sox.
"It's easy to do a good ballgame," Hawk said. "If you've got Mark Buehrle out there against Jake Arrieta in a 2-1 game, it's going fast, those games are easy to do. You've got people in the stands that can do those games.
"The tough ones are the 13-1, 9-0 games. That's where Wimpy was absolutely the best announcer I have ever heard. He can handle those games. That's the secret of broadcasting, handling the bad games."