1991: Hrbek vs Harrelson

Thursday September 26, 1991

Though the Twins and the White Sox both had an off day, the Hrbek/Harrelson fued continued. This time, it was the Minnesota broadcasters who chimed in to the defense of Hrbek. From Jon Roe’s article in the Star Tribune:

It is one thing for a sports announcer to be called a homer, but is it possible for one to go beyond that and demean the opponent?

Twins first baseman Kent Hrbek thinks White Sox broadcasters Ken Harrelson and Tom Paciorek are more than homers, and several Twin Cities announcers say they feel the Chicago duo cross an ethical line between pulling for the home team and rooting against the opposition. The local announcers also say Hrbek isn’t the first person to object to the White Sox announcers.

Hrbek and Harrelson took verbal potshots at each other during the Twins-Chicago series that concluded Wednesday at the Metrodome. Hrbek said the Twins had gotten additional motivation from Harrelson and Paciorek saying “grab some bench” after a White Sox pitcher strikes out an opposing batter. Hrbek called that and other comments the pair make “pretty unprofessional.”

Harrelson, a former American League player who briefly served as the White Sox general manager in the mid-1980s, said Hrbek was an underachiever, overrated and unprofessional for signing a five-year, $14-million contract and then reporting for spring training “weighing 280 pounds.”

Twins announcers Herb Carneal, John Gordon and Ted Robinson acknowledge they may be pulling in their heart of hearts for the Twins to win. But they all agree that Harrelson and Paciorek bring their favoritism to the microphone, and in the process demean the opposition.

“I would guess that they carry it a little too far,” said Carneal, who has been the Twins play-by-play announcer for 30 years. “I don’t think what they say would bother me if I was a player, but some players don’t seem to like it. I’ve heard that from other places in the league, too. I just feel that they (Harrelson and Paciorek) run it into the ground after a while.”

Gordon, who has been Carneal’s partner on Twins broadcasts for five years, said he has gotten feedback from other players, coaches, managers and fans who don’t like comments made by Harrelson and Paciorek. “They probably step out of bounds with some of their comments,” Gordon said. “I try to be as fair as possible and praise the opponent as well as the home team. The thing that bothers me is that Harrelson is more out and out a homer than anybody else. But that’s the showmanship in them. They’re flashy guys, they strut. They don’t care about the things they say, and obviously they get a lot of feedback.”

Robinson, who does the Twins television play-by-play, said the White Sox announcers had a run-in with Wade Boggs of the Boston Red Sox after they had referred to him as “Mrs. Boggs” when he took a prolonged time to get into the batter’s box before a pitch. Robinson said he has heard criticism of Harrelson and Paciorek in other AL towns.

“I don’t think you should say anything that’s demeaning of the efforts of anybody in a uniform,” Robinson said. “They just say things that I don’t think you should say.”

Ray Christensen of WCCO, who has broadcast Gophers football and basketball for nearly 40 years, said he senses a lot of broadcasters are always trying to find the negative rather than the positive. “On any given play, it succeeds more by somebody doing something right than somebody doing something wrong,” Christensen said. “Somebody says the pass was complete because the defender didn’t do a good job of covering, but the receiver may have also put on a very good fake to get open. Maybe the Twins were being supersensitive, but Hrbek seemed to be the target of Harrelson and I can sympathize with Hrbek about that.”

The feud began when Hrbek made some comments about the White Sox announcers prior to the two-game series at the Metrodome earlier in the week.

“I think they are a good ballclub and I don’t dislike them at all,” Hrbek said of the White Sox players. “But I’m not real excited about their announcers. Not too many people in the league are. I don’t think they’re very professional. But I’m no announcer either.”

Harrelson fired back before the next news cycle:

Harrelson said he always has considered Hrbek an underachiever. “I’m not a big Hrbek fan,” Harrelson said. “I thought he had a chance to be a great player. When he came into the league, I extolled him. He lost me when he signed that big $3 million-a-year ($14 million for five years) deal and then came to camp weighing 280 pounds. When I read that he called me unprofessional, I giggled. He signs a $3 million-a-year deal and comes to camp weighing 280? That’s unprofessional. I just think the guy’s vastly overrated. He only plays 140 games. He’s only had one 30-homer season and one 100-RBI season.”