Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and Chicago White Sox announcer Ken “Hawk” Harrelson apparently had a little talk about Harrelson’s on-air rant about umpire Mark Wegner. Based on what Harrelson said the discussion was very one-sided. “I talked to Bud Selig yesterday,” Harrelson said. “We had a talk. Actually, Bud talked and I listened. If it was a prize fight, they would have stopped it in the first round. Harrelson also spoke with Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf. Of that meeting Harrelson said, “I also talked to Jerry, and I listened to him as well. That’s all I really have to say.”
Senior vice president of sales and marketing Brooks Boyer indicated that Harrelson will talk about the outburst on Friday’s broadcast. What Harrelson will say is up to him, however, Boyer said that something like that won’t happen again from Harrelson.
Wegner ejected White Sox pitcher Jose Quintana, in the fourth inning of the White Sox 4-3 victory. The incident was sparked from a play that occurred the previous day at second base between Ben Zobrist and White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski. Pierzynski slid into Zobrist and spiked him. In return, Rays pitcher Alex Cobb hit Pierzynski with a pitch in the third inning the next day. Quintana then tried to plunk Zobrist. Wegner determined there was intent by Quintana when he threw behind Zobrsit in the fourth inning and quickly ejected him.
“What are you doing? He threw him out of the ballgame, you’ve got to be bleepin’ me!” Harrelson said after the ejection. “What in the hell are you doing? What are you doing Wegner? You got to be kidding me. That is so bad that is absolutely brutal. That is unbelievable.
“I’ll tell you what, they have got to start making guys be accountable. That is totally absurd. Here’s an umpire in the American League that knows nothing about the game of baseball. They have got to do something about this. They have got some guys in this league that have no business umpiring. They have no business umpiring because they don’t know what the game of baseball is about.”
With umpire accountability a continuing issue Harrelson decided in the heat of the moment to take his concerns public.
