Ten Foot Mailbag: Awarding Hawk Harrelson & Hiring Susannah Collins
By Tim Baffoe-
(CBS) Susannah Collins is working again, and that's a good thing. No intelligent person thinks Collins got what she deserved when Comcast Sports Net fired her (probably at the demand of Rocky Wirtz and Co.) in May.
Collins was not incompetent at her job with CSN and was one of the more popular personalities on that station. She's funny—in those infamous Youtube videos and otherwise—and obviously a pretty face, which has always been the ultimate irony of her situation.
I'm sure she earned her last job and the ones before that based on hard work, but as her medium is television, it can't be ignored that she and most female TV sportscasters are attractive people. And yet someone hired in part for sex appeal was fired for the language of sex. In 2013. By an organization that has scantily clad women shovel ice in front of children. And promotes a notorious domestic abuser as an ambassador. Maybe a certain team in a league under heat for other issues of barbarism has an issue itself with independent, confident women.
Here's to hoping two things: that Collins' work with CBS leads to a more permanent role there or elsewhere and that for your sake my continued taking umbrage with this situation kills any chance I have of ever appearing on Sports Talk Live.
Weekend. Here's GWAR covering Billy Ocean.
On to your correspondence.
Let's clear a few things up about the Ford Frick just to avoid any confusion. First, someone honored with the award is not being inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame. Cooperstown makes sure to note that in its description—"Each award recipient (not to be confused with an inductee) is presented with a calligraphy of the award and is recognized in the 'Scribes & Mikemen' exhibit in the Library of the National Baseball Hall of Fame." So for Hawk haters, he won't be equated with the likes of his beloved Yaz or anything.
Also, it's pretty much a lifetime achievement award that basically honors longevity in the business. Though in order to last 29 years in the booth like Hawk has, you have to be doing something right (or at least not egregiously wrong to warrant a dismissal). Love him or hate him, Hawk is entertaining. Sometimes that entertainment is positive, and sometimes it's more of a hate-watch sort of thing.
Think about how many team broadcasters you can name outside of Chicago. Now understand that a pretty good percentage of baseball fans outside of this city know who Hawk is. He's a national name, for better or worse. Is he any more hated than Tim McCarver, who lots of times deserves fan evisceration but sometimes maybe not? Marty Brennaman has a Frick, and he's a prick. See here. Here. And here.
Few broadcasters become a brand. Hawk definitely is one. And his footprint on baseball broadcasting cannot be denied. For that should the broadcast wing of baseball's most famous museum have a little place for him someday?
I'll stand by most of what I wrote in July. If for some reason the Cubs were to get a really good offer for Castro, I have zero qualms about moving him (or any other player if the price is right), but I'm not actively calling for a trade.
Besides the (now unsure) availability of Joe Girardi, it's fairly a consensus that a major reason the Cubs fired Dale Sveum was due to the massive regression of Castro this year and the former manager's handling of the shortstop's frequent trips to the zoo while the game was going on.
Because of that, one would have to think the front office still assumes Castro is part of its future for now and will very much try to measure the managerial candidates based on how they will be able to get Castro's head right (and work with Anthony Rizzo and the bevy of prospects that are close to appearing with the big club).
Maybe if the next manager helps return Castro to viability Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer will then look to move the shortstop while his stock is again high with confidence in Javier Baez at shortstop (though several scouts see him eventually playing third base), but there's likely no significant trade value for him right now. And I'm not about to trade a guy who isn't a distraction off the field for a hill of beans just because he's frustrating.
Well, no true pizza driver owns a GPS. But if I did, the default choice has to be Morgan Freeman. I've long said that if I had the means I would pay him to narrate my every waking minute. But there are others I'd be happy with, too.
I find myself talking like Sam Elliott all the time (and jamming to Aaron Copland's "Rodeo"). What about a Lou Holtz one that worked in conjunction with the windshield wipers? Orson Welles is dead, but technology has no problem recreating a voice (and it's not like Welles wasn't a shill in his later years). Samuel L. Jackson has a great narrative voice, too.
Oh, wait! Christopher Walken! How could I forget Walken. Yeah, probably Walken.
I look forward to the celery, especially because I have an Irish mouth that combusts as the very smell of something spicy. Excited is an odd response, though. You are just eating the celery, right?
And here's your Angry Penn State Fan of the Week:
Thanks for emailing, tweeting, and reading. If your question did not get answered this time, that does not necessarily mean I am ignoring it. It may be saved for the next mailbag. Hopefully you're a slightly better person now than you were ten minutes ago. If not, your loss. Want your questions answered in a future Mailbag? Email them to tenfootmailbag@gmail.com or tweet them to @TimBaffoe with the hashtag #TFMB. No question, sports or otherwise, is off limits (with certain logistical exceptions, e.g. lots of naughty words or you type in Portuguese or you solicit my death). If you email, please include a signature.
Tim Baffoe attended the University of Iowa and Governors State University and began blogging at The Score after winning the 2011 Pepsi Max Score Search. He enjoys writing things about stuff, but not so much stuff about things. When not writing for 670TheScore.com, Tim corrupts America's youth as a high school English teacher and provides a great service to his South Side community delivering pizzas (please tip him and his colleagues well). You can follow Tim's inappropriate brain droppings on Twitter @TimBaffoe, but please don't follow him in real life. E-mail him at tenfootmailbag@gmail.com. To read more of Tim's blogs click
