Hawk Harrelson won't go back to Wrigley again: 'It's a joke'

Ken "Hawk" Harrelson won't be showing his face anywhere north of Madison Street anytime soon.

The longtime Chicago White Sox announcer and former All-Star player has already announced he'll retire after the 2018 season, when he finishes working a significantly reduced schedule centered around Sunday home games at Guaranteed Rate Field. If Harrelson does call any White Sox road contests next year, though, he won't be doing so from that other ballpark in Chicago, Wrigley Field.

Harrelson made it perfectly clear Sunday that he dislikes pretty much everything about the 103-year-old venue that the Cubs have called home since 1916, and announced that the two games he broadcasted at Wrigley in July will be his last appearances there.

"I'll tell you this much: I'll never go back to Wrigley Field again," Harrelson told Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times in an interview at Fenway Park on Sunday.

Harrelson added, "Worst press box, worst booths for television. It's a joke; it really is. And so Jason (Benetti, who's called the majority of White Sox games since 2016) is getting ready for those three at Wrigley. I will never step foot in that ballpark again. Ever. ...

"We've got three games over at their place (Wrigley next season), and I told (White Sox chairman) Jerry (Reinsdorf) before we came on this trip, 'I'm not going back to Wrigley Field.' He said, 'Well, you've got three games there next year.' I said, 'Well, we're going to get rid of those.'"

Harrelson never played in a game at Wrigley, as he spent his entire nine-year MLB career in the American League at a time when interleague play was nonexistent.

The 75-year-old has long been known for his unabashed homerism in the booth while calling White Sox games, and his comments Sunday confirmed that his anti-Wrigley feelings may be about more than just the ballpark.

"I would rather beat the Cubs more than anybody," Harrelson said, "so that definitely stamps me as a White Sox guy."