Chicago White Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson is notorious for not having a filter. Whether he’s flipping out over a blown call or making a racist comment without realizing it, we’ve come to learn that we shouldn’t be surprised with anything that comes out of the 72-year-old’s mouth — even if he talks about his hemorrhoids.
Harrelson chatted with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on MLB Network’s “High Heat” on Thursday, and he was asked about the great season he had when he was an All-Star with the Boston Red Sox in 1968. Hawk credited Carl Yastrzemski for his uprising and butt pain for his downfall.
“Well in ’68, it was all because of Yaz,” Harrelson said. “Over the winter I had dedicated myself to — I said, ‘I’m gonna stick it up Carl’s behind in ’68.’ And that was my motivation. I was just going to go ahead and play as hard as I could and things worked out pretty good. In fact, I was going for the Triple Crown up until I got the hemorrhoids and then at that point I fell out of that…”
To his credit, Mad Dog skipped right over the comment and acted like he didn’t even hear it. He probably could have made things a lot weirder. Skip ahead to the 2:08 mark of the video below to hear Harrelson’s hemorrhoid talk for yourself.
As Deadspin’s Tim Marchman noted, Harrelson hit .297 with 31 home runs and 99 RBI through August 15 of the 1968 season. He hit .219 with four homers and 10 RBI the rest of the way. Did they have Tuck’s medicated wipes back then? It sounds like Hawk could have used them.
