On Old Friend

I certainly didn't see this one coming. In addition to having Frank Thomas sub for Steve Stone in the TV booth, the White Sox have brought back an old friend of the family in Tom Paciorek to sub for radio commentator Darrin Jackson during the Royals and Tigers series. I, for one, am very pleasantly surprised by this decision as "Wimpy" was part of one of my favorite and arguably the best White Sox broadcast pairings of all time. As White Sox fans I believe we were very fortunate to have Hawk and Wimpy call our games as their blatant "homer" perspective, positive outlook, old baseball stories, and hilarious banter made White Sox games very enjoyable for the entire decade of the 1990's.

Now there still has been no clarification, acknowledgment, let alone atonement for the White Elephant In The Room of why Paciorek left ten years ago in the first place. It certainly was not addressed in Paciorek's enjoyable interview with Dan McNeil on the SCORE today. You can listen to that interview here. All the rumors that have been circulating lo these past ten years have one underlying theme to them, and that theme is Hawk got Wimpy fired. Officially, the Wimp-A-Roo left to "spend more time with family", which anyone with a brain knows is NEVER the reason ANYONE leaves ANYTHING, especially in Sports.

Paciorek certainly has made both the news and the rounds during the past ten years. His admissions in 2002 that he and his brothers were sexually assaulted by a Catholic Priest numerous times when they were kids certainly aided in the exposure of the Sex Abuse Scandal the church can no longer sweep under the carpet. Broadcast-wise he's been a bit of a nomad calling Braves games from 2001-05, and Washington Nationals games in 2006 as well as some Tigers and Mariners games here and there. Other than that, he really hasn't caught on anywhere nor has he established himself nearly as well as he did with the White Sox.

So now ten years later, The Beard is hoping that this is the beginning of a reconciliation of some sorts between the Sox/Hawk and Paciorek. I'm sure Hawk and Wimpy have run into each other before now, and who knows what kind of terms they are on? Either way, with all due respect (for lack of a better word) to D.J., I believe it would be an outstanding move to bring Paciorek back to the Sox broadcasts in some capacity. D.J. doesn't even have to lose his job really. I'm sure a 3 man radio booth could work between Wimpy, D.J., and Farmio. It certainly couldn't hurt judging from what I've heard of Farmer and D.J.

Here's hoping that this is the beginning of something good and long overdue. Now if only this White Sox baseball team wasn't so crappy...