Steve Stone will have Ken Harrelson’s vote.
In fact, it was Harrelson, Stone’s partner of 10 years in the White Sox’ TV broadcast booth, who was instrumental in getting Stone on the Ford C. Frick Award ballot for broadcasting excellence in the first place.
Harrelson, who entered the Hall of Fame as the Frick Award recipient in 2020, was on the subcommittee of the voting electorate that created the 2023 ballot. Fellow Frick honorees Marty Brennaman and Eric Nadel and broadcast historians David Halberstam and Curt Smith were also on it.
Harrelson said he promoted the cases of Stone and Cleveland Guardians radio voice Tom Hamilton and hopes to see them get to Cooperstown when voting is revealed on Dec. 7.
“Stoney belongs in the Hall, he does,” Harrelson said. “He’s very knowledgeable.”
When they worked together, Harrelson and Stone were not the best of chums away from the booth, but there’s no doubting the respect shared between them. Both have expressed it.
“We didn’t socialize together much,” Harrelson said. “But when we walked into the booth, ‘the Hawk’ more or less took over for me. Every time I walked in that booth I’d say, ‘All right, Hawk, let’s get it done.’ And getting it done is utilizing somebody like a Steve Stone as your analyst. Regardless of how we were socially, I just respected the hell out of his work.”
Harrelson, 81, put old TV reruns of “Gunsmoke” on pause this week to talk baseball, sharing from his Orlando, Fla., winter home that he is doing well in retirement.
Not that watching the Sox this season had anything to do with it.
The Sox went 81-81 with a team that, in spring training, looked as talented as any in the American League in Harrelson’s view.
“This was one of the worst years I’ve ever seen of the White Sox,” Harrelson said. “One of the most disappointing.
“A lot of my broadcast friends said, ‘Hawk, what’s wrong with your Sox, man? They just don’t look like they’re into it.’ And they weren’t.”
With Bruce Bochy – his top choice — hired last week by the Rangers, Harrelson would love to see Ozzie Guillen brought back to manage the club “to reinvigorate our fan base,” he said. Or his friend A.J. Pierzynski, the catcher on Guillen’s 2005 World Series champion who has no coaching or managing experience but “has a great baseball mind.” Harrelson said he wasn’t expecting either one, however, to be offered the job.
“There are a lot of candidates out there,” he said.
“It’s a big decision. It’s more than hiring a manager, it’s getting our fans into it. Because a lot of our fans are really, really disappointed about last season.”
Hamilton, who called just the opposite kind of season in Cleveland, “is the best radio guy,” Harrelson said. “He puts your butt right in that ballpark.”
Hamilton and Stone are among 10 finalists on a Frick Award list including Pat Hughes, Dave Campbell, Joe Castiglione, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Jerry Howarth, Ernie Johnson Sr. and Duane Kuiper.
An electorate of the 12 living Frick Award recipients including Harrelson, Brennaman, Nadel, Bob Costas, Jaime Jarrin, Tony Kubek, Al Michaels, Jon Miller, Bob Uecker and Dave Van Horne and three broadcast historians/columnists will have the final vote.
Harrelson touted Stone to the subcommittee and will have him high on his ballot.
“I hope he gets in,” Harrelson said. “I will be voting for him. The two guys who should definitely get in are Hamilton and Stone.”
