Welcome to Romoville

Heaven has hell, Neo has Agent Smith, Michael Cera has Jesse Eisenberg. Our first groundbreaking ceremony was for Bannywood, the home of baseball's cheats. Bannywood, meet your Jesse Eisenberg.

Welcome to Romoville, a nice place to live. Romoville has been established for those in Major League Baseball worthy of recognition, who are not getting enough. Future inductees will include Ken Griffey, Jr. and Jim Thome, to name a pair of surefire Hall of Famers that deserve even more credit for doing it natural and doing it off pitchers that weren't.

For our first inductee, we are honoring the most unabashed homer in broadcasting, Ken "The Hawk" Harrelson. For 20 years, the Hawk has cheered on the Chicago White Sox from the broadcaster's booth, trading objectivity for youthful enthusiasm. Make no mistake, the Hawk means it when he refers to the Sox as "our guys"; he left the booth to become the team's GM in the 1980's, so it really is his team.

Homerism is up all across the league thanks to announcers like the Marlins' Rich Waltz and Tommy Hutton, and Daron Sutton and Mark Grace in Arizona. The Fish and D-Backs crews are the Hawk's apostles in an ever-less-objective profession. Announcers who transmit their personal allegiances through their broadcasts can come in two forms: Smug Homers and Unabashed Homers. Smug Homers are arrogant, shocked when the other team is successful. Announcers like Joe Buck, John Sterling and Bert Blyleven are headed for Bannywood. Unabashed Homers are just super-excited when their team does well, but always give plenty of respect for the pitcher that's held them down or the hitter that's given them fits.

As a player, Hawk Harrelson was a feared hitter and a valued teammate. An innovator, he is credited for being the first to use batting gloves, a practice he carried over from his experience as a golfer. In his time as primary announcer for the White Sox, he has coined many of the game's great nicknames, including "Black Jack" McDowell, "El Caballo," and "The Big Hurt."

To honor The Hawk as the first Romoville inductee, here are some of our favorite nicknames in baseball.

Martin "The Devil Wears" Prado
The Mad Bomber (Madison Bumgarner)
Fast Car (Fausto Carmona)
Mr. Happy (Neftali Feliz)
Dan "Winning" Uggla
David "First in Saves" Aardsma
Buster "Parker" Posey
E-Jack (Edwin Jackson)
Kevin You-Kill-Us
Charleston Chew Sabathia (We finally found out what the CC stands for!)