Lost Ballparks

Hawk Harrelson (HOF 2020)

• Mike Koser • Season 8 • Episode 4

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This month on Lost Ballparks, Ken "Hawk" Harrelson joins us with stories as colorful as his career.  From meeting Mickey Mantle as a kid to helping save Fenway, playing with Satchel Paige, and even catching the eye of Frank Sinatra, Hawk's stories are legendary. Hear how a twist of fate before Game 7 of the ’67 World Series might have cost the Red Sox their title, and relive highlights from his 9-year big league career and 33 years in the White Sox broadcast booth. Grab some peanuts and cracker jack—Hawk Harrelson joins us on Lost Ballparks!

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Mike Koser:

"You handsome son of a gun, don't you ever die. I look in the mirror and say that anywhere from one to a dozen times a day, depending on how often I shave, change my clothes, comb my hair, or just happen to see my reflection somewhere." That's how Hawk Harrison begins his 1969 autobiography. Yes, sir. The Hawk is one of a kind. In baseball, few personalities have shown as brightly as Ken "Hawk" Harrelson. The five-time Emmy Award winner is one of the game's true originals, known for his colorful spirit and unforgettable style. In fact, his impact was so strong and so immediate that in 1968, the Val Perry Trio wrote a song just for him called " Don't Walk the Hawk". They performed it every time he stepped through the door at a small restaurant near the Red Sox Spring training home. His nine-year big league career included stops with the Kansas City A's, Washington Senators, the 1967 Impossible Dream Boston Red Sox, and Cleveland Indians. Though his playing career cut short by injury was notable, it was in the broadcast booth where his legend grew to baseball icon status. He spent 33 years as the TV voice of the Chicago White Sox, coining catchphrases that are still repeated by fans on the South side today. A White Sox home run...

Hawk:

(Game audio) That ball hit hard...stretch... you can put it on the booooard, yes!

Mike Koser:

A strikeout from the opposing team...

Hawk:

(Game audio) He gone! 1 to go!

Mike Koser:

Hawk Harrelson is my guest on this month's Lost Ballparks podcast. Hawk, listen, first of all, I know it's been just a few weeks since the hurricane barreled through Florida, and I uh we've talked a little bit since then, but I'm so glad to hear that you and your family are okay.

Hawk:

Yeah, we got lucky. We got really lucky.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, just just thankful that you guys are all good. Those storms are so powerful and unpredictable. And uh yeah, man, just glad you guys are okay. Anyway, look uh I'm looking forward to talking with you. If you're good, I'm good. Let's go ahead and get started.

Hawk:

All right, buddy.

Mike Koser:

In 1950, your family moved to Savannah, Georgia. When you were nine, your mom let you skip school one spring day. The Yankees were playing the Reds in an exhibition game at Grayson Stadium in Savannah. Uh what stands out in your memory about that ballpark and that special day?

Hawk:

Listen, I was a mama's boy. I asked her if I could go see the Yankees play. She says, sure, let's go, I'll go with you. And we went to Grayson Stadium, and I had played uh some, you know, some high school ball there, and it was a short porch in left field with a high screen, but it was still easy to hit home runs in. It was right off Victory Drive, which is a famous drive there in Savannah. And it was really a nice ballpark. They had a uh an A-ball club there, and I used to go there because my mom only made 56 bucks a week, and her uh ex-husband didn't give her a dollar or a dime, a nickel, nothing. I'd go there and I forget the name of the manager. He was a nice guy, big guy, big he was a big ex first baseman. And I asked him if I could come there and you know, shine shoes and try to pick up some money. He said, sure. So I went there and I used to shine shoes and uh in the visiting clubhouse. And that's Jacksonville. They had Hank Aaron on that ball club. So I was shining Hank's shoes when I was, you know, like 14 years old. I picked up quite a bit of money doing that. When I say quite a bit, I'm talking about, you know, 20, 25, 30 dollars.

Mike Koser:

On that day, you came face to face with your idol, Mickey Mantle, and you walk up to him and ask him for his autograph, but but he brushed you off, right?

Hawk:

Yeah. Well, uh I went there and and then the game was over, and the Yankees came out and they were getting on their bus to go back to the hotel. And so I told my mom, I said, Mom, I said, I want to wait outside, I want to try to get Mickey Mantle's autograph. And she said, Okay. So she stood there with me, and all of a sudden the Yankees come walking out after the game's over, and then I see Mickey and I walk over to Mickey, and I said, Mickey, can I have your autograph? And he said, Beat it, kid.

Mike Koser:

Wow.

Hawk:

You know...And when I got to the big leagues, Mickey and I became really good friends. We played a lot of golf together and everything else, but I used to bring that up to him. But it was I was heartbroken, you know.

Mike Koser:

Oh, I'm sure. I mean, it must have been heartbreaking. You get that close to someone you've admired for so long and then to have it have it end like that. In the um in the 40s and 50s, like most kids of that era, you would uh take your transistor radio to bed with you and uh have it on your pillow, and I think you would listen to KMOX out of St. Louis.

Hawk:

Yeah, most of the time.

Mike Koser:

You would have heard Jack Buck and Harry Caray calling games, right?

Hawk:

Oh, I loved them both.

Harry Caray:

The wind up, the pitch on the way. Strike called a fastball...

Hawk:

I loved them both. I'll tell you what. Uh in fact, Harry Caray, when I was with the White Sox, he called me several times and asked me to come over and uh join him in the booth. Can you imagine that pairing? Well, that's when he uh uh he had been broadcasting with Steve Stone, and I don't think he and Steve got along that well. So he he'd call me a couple of times, says, come on over here and broadcast with me. And I was broadcasting the Sox, and I forget exactly who it was with, but uh I told him I said, no, I'm not gonna leave the White Sox. I liked Harry. I'm not saying I loved him, but I can tell you this, I I liked him a lot.

Mike Koser:

You were an outstanding high school athlete. I th uh a true Bo Jackson before Bo Jackson, uh an all-American in basketball. You had a football scholarship offer from the University of Georgia, and by your junior year of high school, you were a scratch golfer. You could hold your own in pool, you had a 200 bowling average, and you could play a little baseball. Good enough to be drafted by the Kansas City Athletics.

Announcer:

Kansas City is a brawling, lusty city that stands defiantly on the shores of the Missouri River, straddling 12 railroads, seven airlines, and a network of transcontinental highways.

Mike Koser:

And at 21, you get the call to the big leagues, arriving at Kansas City's municipal stadium on June 8th, 1963. What went through your mind as you walked through that dugout tunnel and saw that ballpark for the first time?

Hawk:

Oh, I was I was overwhelmed, you know.

Announcer:

Spacious municipal stadium, one of the most modern in the game. This giant arena was built in record time when the A's came to town.

Hawk:

First of all, it was a beautiful ballpark. All the players loved coming there to play. The ball carried well there, too. So it was it was short porch in right field. And of course, I was a right-handed hitter, but that helped me out as I didn't think about it at the time, but later on I realized that really helped me grow as a hitter.

Mike Koser:

On September 10th, 1965, during the final month of your third season with the Kansas City Athletics, Charlie Finley, the owner of the athletics, signed 59-year-old Satchel Paige. Just two weeks later, on September 25th, Satchel pitched in his last major league game.

Announcer:

Three innings of almost perfect ball here tonight at Municipal Stadium. Whether he is 23, 53, 63, or 73, as some say, he really showed a lot of people that he still has that old love of the game, and boy, his arm is still there. What a guy, Satchel Paige.

Mike Koser:

And after the game, you walk up to him with a request.

Hawk:

Satch and I had become pretty good buddies there. I said, Satch, can I have your glove? And he looked at me, smiled, reached back in his locker, brought it out, and handed it to me. Satchel Paige's last appearance, and he gave me his glove, which I later on donated to uh I think the Hall of Fame.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, but you think about that now, like that is a uh that's a priceless piece of memorabilia.

Hawk:

Yeah. You're right on the money.

Mike Koser:

Hawk, it was your mom's dream to watch you play in the big leagues. So one day she drove the Pontiac that you had bought for her after signing your first major league contract, and uh she drives it over a thousand miles to Kansas City to watch you face the Tigers.

Hawk:

I remember her coming up, yeah.

Mike Koser:

After reading both of your books, I get a sense that your mom was your biggest fan. In fact, early on uh in your time with the Kansas City A's when you hit a bit of uh I don't know, like a little bit of a slump and saw your playing time reduced, she took she took matters into her own hands. She wrote a letter to uh Charlie Finley demanding that he treat you better. I don't think you knew about it at the time, but later you found out that she had told uh Finley if you're not gonna play my son, send him back home to me.

Hawk:

I remember that quote. I remember that quote, yeah. And I I don't remember exactly what the what the uh letter said, but I remember that quote that was in that letter.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, well not long after in 1967, Charlie Finley does release you, and they're... surprisingly, because you're having a great year, and the Red Sox, who had just lost their young star right fielder Tony Canigliaro, were in the middle of a pennant chase. Uh and they hear that you've been released, and they must have thought, uh, you gotta be kidding me. This is this is too good to be true. But you're going from you were making, I think, twelve thousand dollars with the with the A's, and they offer you a giant pay increase.

Hawk:

Yeah. He said, Well, I'll tell you what we're gonna do. We're gonna give you $150,000 to come over here and play for the Red Sox. And at that time, uh that was the highest paid salary in baseball. Yeah. More than Mickey, more than Willie Mays, more than Aaron, and of course I was not in that category. But it was the highest paid salary, and that's what broke down where the owners had control of the salaries, but the players did.

Mike Koser:

That was the match that lit the fire of free agency.

Hawk:

That was the beginning of the change, and and they lose Tony, who Ted Williams said Tony was the greatest young home run hitter he ever saw, and Jack Hamilton hit him with a with a pitch. And Jack wasn't trying to throw at him. He it's just a pitch. And Tony was one of those hitters, once he got in that box, he was there. He didn't move very well at all, you know. And he uh Jack hit him with a a fastball right upside the temple.

Mike Koser:

So they lose Tony and look, it's no exaggeration that going into that 1967 season, um Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey was seriously considering tearing down Fenway Park. I mean, I know that sounds crazy now, but uh if you look back at that particular time, Boston hadn't seen a winning season in eight years. The 65 team had finished with a hundred losses, and at sixty-six they were twenty-six games out of first place. That sixty-seven pennant winning team that you were part of truly saved Fenway Park.

Hawk:

I agree. I agree. I didn't know it at the time, you know.

Mike Koser:

Yeah.

Hawk:

But uh in retrospect, I agree. And the guy who really was a big catalyst in that was Dick Williams. They hired Dick Williams to come aboard, and Dick Williams really was the savior of that franchise. Dick was the one that got us ready. I remember a game we were playing in Baltimore, and I'm playing right field. Lee Stange pitching, and Frank Robinson comes to the plate. And I'm in right field, and in right field, the bullpen, the way you entered the bullpen was they had two iron gates that you had to open to get into the bullpen. I'm playing right field, and Lee hangs in uh slider, and Frank hit a rocket out there. It's over my head, and I'm going back as hard as I can run. And I hit that gate, and when I hit it, I thought I broke my shoulder. So I'm lying on the ground, and I'm I'm really in pain, and I'm I'm I can stand a lot of pain. Believe me, I've been in too many fights not to. But I'm writhing on the ground there. So finally I get up. Williams, he didn't do anything, he didn't come out. So they sent the trainer out and they get me up, and I'm I'm going back to the dugout, and I walk into the dugout. Mike Andrews is there, and Mike's Mike had a great sense of humor. He was like he was like an early Bob Uecker, you know.

Mike Koser:

Right.

Hawk:

He said, You know what Skipper said when he poked his head out of the dugout and saw me on the ground? I said, What? He said, Drag his ass in the bullpen and let's finish the game.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, Dick Williams was not exactly an empathetic manager. Um in 67 I mean, listen, in 67, who would have thought that from where you started at the beginning of the year, that you would um that you would find yourself in the World Series by October as a member of the Boston Red Sox facing off against one of the greatest all-time pitchers, Bob Gibson, and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Announcer:

Over 200 million listeners of today's game. This game is about ready to start...

Mike Koser:

In game five of the 1967 World Series, the Red Sox were down three games to one. And it's a must-win situation at Busch Memorial Stadium. In the bottom of the first, Lou Brock sent a line drive to you in right field, and you make what might have been the best catch of your career.

Announcer:

Let's see what he can do today. Here is the pitch by Lonborg. ...

Mike Koser:

So the Red Sox win that game. Take game five. Uh Red Sox win game six, setting up a decisive game seven at Fenway Park.

Harry Caray:

Manager Red Schoendienst gets together with Bob Gibson, his starter in this decisive seventh game.

Mike Koser:

Before the game, though, something happened that I bet most people don't know about. Um, something that could have changed the outcome of that game and possibly the entire 1967 World Series. You go to your locker to grab your glove and it's gone.

Hawk:

That's right. Mike, uh you you've done your research, I'll tell you that. You've done your research. Seventh game of the World Series, I go to my locker, my glove's gone. And to this day, nobody has had guts enough to say or claim stealing my glove. I can't find my glove. And I go looking around at every locker in their locker room. Never could find it. Never could find it. I'll tell you, the person who stole it, I had to figure it was one of the clubhouse guys. Person who stole it is is afraid to admit he's got that glove.

Mike Koser:

Look, anyone who's played ever played baseball understands the value of your personal glove. It's uh it's something that's been carefully maintained and broken in to suit your specific style of play. I mean, yeah, you could you can borrow someone else's glove, but I can Hawk, I can promise you this, and I'm sure that you'd agree, it it is not the same as using your own glove.

Hawk:

You're right. I had to borrow Danny Osinski's, and I had my glove like it was like a suction cup. If if that ball hit my glove, you were out. Uh McCarver comes up.

Announcer:

This is McCarver who's popped the short and grounded to second.

Hawk:

And he hits a low-line drive out there that I came in, dove.

Announcer:

Harrelson. had it and the lost it. and on at second base is McCarver.

Hawk:

And it hit in the glove, and because Osinski's glove was stiff, you know, the ball popped out.

Curt Gowdy:

I think Ken, and it happens many times. They uh dislodged the ball when they hit the ground. Harrelson driving his shoulder in the ground and rolling over, and the ball was jarred loose. So he made quite an effort, and the crowd was all set to give him a big ovation. He's not known, as a fancy fielder, but he nearly made the play of the ball game there. He almost did.

Hawk:

And you couldn't give Gibson a couple extra runs like that.

Mike Koser:

Yeah, Bob Gibson was lights out, yeah.

Hawk:

Yeah, well, he beat us three times, and I couldn't stand him. You know, I couldn't stand him. So anyway, the last time, this is the seventh game of the World Series, So I come to the plate in the last game. He'd beaten us twice already. So this is the seventh game, and I come to the plate. And so my last at bat, I hit a ground ball to Dal Maxvill, a shortstop.

Announcer:

Maxvill over to Javier, and it's a double play. Six, four, three, double play.

Hawk:

And Gibby had come over to back up in case it was a wild throw. And I'm going back to the dugout. And Gibson, who had back, was over there, we crossed paths, and I had to do it. I had to say, uh, I looked at him and I said, you know, I hated this guy. I said, Gibby, you're the greatest. I had to pay him respect.

Mike Koser:

Yeah. And in front of 35,000 at Fenway on October 12th, 1967, the Cardinals win their eighth overall championship.

Announcer:

Strike three, and the Cardinals have won the World Series. And Bob Gibson gets his 10th strike and the mob him down on the field. A 7-2 victory for the Cardinals. All of his teammates surround him, and they're roaring in from the bullpen now to continue their congratulations on a magnificent pitching job turned in by the St. Louis right-hander today.

Mike Koser:

In 1969, you were traded to Cleveland to the Indians, and you rented a condo at Winton Place, condominium just west of downtown. The Indians were... they were so excited to have you on that team after a historic 68 season, uh by far the best year of your career. They were so excited to have you that they even offered to fly you by helicopter to municipal stadium to bypass traffic on game day. Where would it land?

Hawk:

Well, I had the penthouse there and the helicopter would land on the roof.

Mike Koser:

It picks you up, it takes you to the ballpark, into the actual ballpark on the field?

Hawk:

Yeah. Drop me uh on the field. Or sometimes if the if they had too many cars there, they'd drop me in the parking lot.

Mike Koser:

What do you remember, Hawk, about municipal stadium in the late 60s?

Hawk:

Well, I know that uh boy, they had some good pitchers. They had uh Steve Hargan, they had "Sudden" Sam McDowell, and sudden Sam had uh the best stuff that I've ever seen. You could hear Sam's fastball because back in those days the ball was different. The ball had seams that were maybe a third of an inch, quarter of an inch high. Today, these seams are stuck right on the ball. But Sam, I and then I played with Sam and I had hit a couple home runs off Sam. And so I remember Yaz and I are we come in from Detroit one night and we get in late and we landed on the airstrip downtown in Cleveland, and there was this restaurant, after hours restaurant, that we uh used to always go to because you could tie, but you couldn't beat the steaks he put out. I mean, you know, and so he had he uh got us a table. It was like one o'clock in the morning. So we were eating our steaks, and all of a sudden I look in the back and I see this light back there because there was nobody else in there except the the waiter, the owner, yes, and myself. I asked the guy, the owner, I said, Who's that in the back back there? He said, That's McDowell. All of a sudden we finish our steak, and I see this big guy, Sam was 6'6, you know, and he comes walking up and to our table, and we're the only other two people in the restaurant. Sam comes walking. He don't even look at Yaz, he looks at me. And I think it was probably because I hit a couple of home runs off of him. And he says, Hawk, he said, I'm gonna strike your ass out four times because he was pitching that night. He said, I'm gonna strike your ass out four times, nothing but fastballs. So the owner comes over, grabs Sam by the shoulder and is pulling him away. And Sam looks at me again, he holds up uh four fingers. He said, Four times, I'm gonna strike your ass out tonight. Nothing but fastballs, nothing but fastballs. So now we go to the ballpark the next night, and first time up, he threw me a fastball, and I hit it. In fact, one of the writers there for Cleveland said it was the only ball he ever saw hit all the way out of uh municipal stadium, but it was foul by about 10 or 15 feet.

Announcer:

Long belt but foul. He whacked that one.

Hawk:

Meanwhile, the story is he threw me nothing but fastballs in four bats, and he struck me out four times.

Announcer:

Two balls, two strikes. Strike three. Called out by Evan Ashton. Harrelson not caring at all for the call. He's out of there, and they're two away.

Hawk:

Sam was a great guy. He really was. And when I went there, you know, uh played, we played together, and he was just a great teammate. But as I said, he had the best stuff I ever saw. I faced Nolan Ryan in spring training, and he threw hard. But Sam, with with the seams on the ball the way it was, you could hear his slider, you could hear his curveball. I'll tell you what, he was he was something.

Mike Koser:

You had no shortage of star friends who wanted to be around you just as much, if not more, than you wanted to be around them. Guys like Clint Eastwood, Frank Sinatra. These stories are crazy. Tell me about the night that Frank Jr., Frank Sinatra's kid, was performing at a club in Miami and you were there to watch him.

Hawk:

We had uh baseball celebrity tournament in Palm Springs every year. And uh Clint Eastwood was in there, Frank was in there, uh all the big stars are there, you know, and so after the round's over, we're sitting in there and Frank came in and sat down with us, and of course we were all you know thrilled at that. And uh then when I was living in in Miami, I'd retired from baseball, and that's the only time I met Frank. And I read in the paper where his son was playing now at a friend of mine's bar and

Mike Koser:

yeah, like a little nightclub.

Hawk:

Yeah, like a nightclub. Uh I go there, and I got the last table in the back. So I'm sitting there, and all of a sudden now Frank Jr.'s getting ready to come on. And here comes Jr. Here comes Frank and with his entourage, and they sit in a table, like two tables in front of mine. So now later on I gotta get uh go pee and I get up and I walk by Frank Sr. So I go pee, come back, walking back to my table, and Frank grabs me by the arm and he goes, Hey buddy, you don't say hello to your friends? And I just melted, you know.

Mike Koser:

I mean, to have Frank Sinatra recognize you and call you out in a crowded club like that, I can't even imagine. You broadcast Major League Baseball games for over 40 years, starting in Boston, and then spending 33 years with the Chicago White Sox, with a couple years with the Yankees in between. There's one story I want you to share. Um one night you're at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and as someone who grew up going to that ballpark, Storms would just whip off that lake and uh sometimes catch you off guard. But you're at the ballpark, and you and your broadcast partner, Don Drysdale, are in the booth preparing for the game that night, and as you put on your headset, a bolt of lightning strikes the stadium.

Hawk:

Well, yeah, I I I mean that's not unusual. Back in those days, of course, the the uh headsets and everything now is so sophisticated. I think they have guard guards against uh, you know, lightning strikes and everything. But back in those days, it was not un unusual for when there was a storm or something, the lightning and it just blasts your ears off, you know. And but Don Drysdale to me, to me, Don Drysdale is the greatest baseball announcer that I've ever heard.

Don Drysdale:

And of course, when you're playing the Yankees, you know one thing going into the ballgame, you only play him seven innings because after that, you've got that big redhead in the bullpen, and he is awfully, awfully tough. Keep going. That's it.

Hawk:

Drysdale, I'm telling you, he he knew more about the game of baseball than anybody I've ever known. If you were in your car driving, he put you right in the ballpark.

Don Drysdale:

Gossage was just waiting for Harrison to stand in there. As soon as Jerry stepped in there, got the bat back. Gossage was coming at him.

Hawk:

And that's what you know Vin Scully did with the Dodgers for many years. He put you right in the ballpark.

Vin Scully:

Koufax takes a peek at first now left hands a fastball in there that's cut on and fouled to the right of the plate and close to the dugout. C ampanella comes over to the lip of the dugout, and he has no play. Ball finally winds up about 4 rows back of the dugout. Young GI with his gal got that foul ball., and proudly presented it to her. Like to see that in a ballpark. Another thing you like to see is a father catch a foul ball and hand it to his little son. "That's my pop."

Hawk:

There are so many announcers today that are good. I mean, you know, to me, the best baseball announcer is Tom Hamilton of Cleveland. I've always thought that baseball was a radio game if you had the right announcer. Tom, every time I get a chance to, because I commuted, you know, for a long time back and forth from South Bend our home, which was about 102 miles from the ballpark. And I could coming back, I occassionally could get games on the West Coast, and when Cleveland would be on the West Coast, I'd listen to Tom Hamilton.

Tom Hamilton:

Thome drills one high and deep to center. Away, way, way back. Gone deep into the picnic plaza, and that might have even got out of the ballpark. Jim Thome has just left Jacobs Field onto Eagle Avenue.

Mike Koser:

You know, I think too that you, you, Vin Scully, um, Drysdale, you guys were all masters of the art of just uh letting a moment breathe a little. You know? Not not feeling like you had to cover every second with commentary.

Hawk:

Exactly. You've got guys today, they're afraid that it's gonna be the last time they get a chance to say anything.

Mike Koser:

Uh very few have done it as well as you, Hawk. You know, and one moment stands out in particular to me, and that is September 30th, 1990, the final game at Comiskey Park. After the game, uh White Sox players returned to the field to this uh roaring standing ovation from fans who were glued to their seats, reluctant to leave the ballpark. Nancy Faust, the great Nancy Faust, was at the organ, and you and your partner Tom Paciorek beautifully delivered Comiskey's eulogy.

Hawk:

I saw a little glisten of a tear in your eye, it's moving one of mine. It has been a significant part of your life, as it has been mine, and certainly for all the millions of fans for enjoying their white sox play.

Tom Paciorek:

Great baseball palace in the last 80 years.

Mike Koser:

Comiskey Park, the baseball palace of the world, the White Sox home from 1910 to 1990, forever stands as an immortal piece of baseball history. And the same can be said for Ken Hawk Harrelson. Nine seasons in the big leagues, over 40 years in the booth, in the broadcast wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame. It has been a lot of fun spending some time with you today, Hawk.

Hawk:

Well, as I said, I'm one of the luckiest guys. I've been married to my wife for 52 years. And I'll tell you one thing right now. She has she has saved my life.

Mike Koser:

Well, God bless you both, Hawk. Really enjoyed both of your books. The one that came out in 68, 69, and uh the one more recently a few years ago. Listen, I I sure do appreciate your time.

Hawk:

Well, it's my pleasure, and and I I I enjoy talking to guys who do their homework like you have done, you know. And and in fact, I'm gonna do another book, probably, probably, not for sure. I don't know when it'll be, but uh

Mike Koser:

Man, I hope so.

Hawk:

Yeah, this next one will be okay.

Mike Koser:

I can't wait for that. And I think it's only fitting to end our time together with the catchphrase you would say as an opposing player would strike out.

Hawk:

He gone!

Mike Koser:

Thank you, Hawk. This was great, man.

Hawk:

All right, Mike.

Mike Koser:

A couple of quick footnotes. Harrelson got his nickname, the Hawk, thanks to his distinctive profile. After breaking his nose, I don't know, some seven, eight times in his younger years and throughout his young adulthood, it took on a striking shape, giving him a unique look that earned him the nickname Hawk. If you've never had the opportunity to hear him call White Sox game, there are plenty on YouTube that are available, including some all-time great calls that will make it clear why Ken Hawk Harrelson is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He really is one of a kind.

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Mike Koser

Host