You can put Ken "Hawk" Harrelson on the board for 81 White Sox games next season.
The South Side's iconic television voice has signed a new two-year contract that will see him cut back to calling half of the schedule, 670 The Score reported Monday. And the vast majority of those games will be away from U.S. Cellular Field.
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Harrelson lives in Indiana and drives about 90 minutes each way to and from the ballpark, making it easier for him to call road games than home games. So he will be in the booth for the White Sox's home opener, their two home games against the Cubs, and 78 road games. The team will hire a play-by-play announcer to work with analyst Steve Stone for the rest of the schedule.
Harrelson, 74, just wrapped up his 31st season in the White Sox booth and his seventh alongside Stone. A Chicago fixture, he served as the White Sox general manager during the 1986 season before returning to broadcasting.
Known for his open on-air rooting for the White Sox, Harrelson's signature call is reserved for home runs: "You can put it on the board … yes!"
Harrelson had some power during his playing days, hitting 35 homers for the Red Sox in 1968 — no small feat in the "Year of the Pitcher" — on the way to a third-place finish in MVP voting. In all, he spent parts of nine seasons in the majors before retiring in 1971 at age 29.
