In Hawk: The Colorful Life of Ken Harrelson (MLB Network, tonight, 7 p.m. ET), the stories and the name-dropping (Vince Lombardi, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Namath) come so fast that you almost expect to hear Harrelson say he was with Abner Doubleday when he started drawing diamonds on a napkin.
It really doesn’t seem possible that one person could have known so many people. But it is because we’re talking about “Hawk.”
“Do I believe everything he said?” Cornblatt said. “I have no reason not to believe him. He existed in that world in the ’60s and ’70s. It is the life he led.”
Cornblatt said countless stories never made it into the film. Considering Harrelson continues to go strong at 71, perhaps there will be a sequel.
Also, love this picture I found on Hawk playing with Cleveland. No there’s a guy with a lot of TWTW.
Here are some of the excerpts from tonight’s film:
Harrelson on being asked twice by the Red Sox to take over as manager:
While I was broadcasting their games, the Red Sox asked me to manage the team twice. The first year, it was ’77 when they fired D.J., Darrell Johnson. [Dick] O’Connell called me in Kansas City and said, “We’re going to fire D.J. Why don’t you take over the ball club?” So I said, “I don’t want to take over the ball club.” He says, “Why not?” I said “Because you don’t want my temper on that bench.” He said, “Well, who should I get?” I said, “See if you can get Yogi.” He said, “I can’t get Yogi.” I said, “Well, Popeye, get Popeye. Players love him.” Don Zimmer, third base coach. I said, “Get Popeye.” He said, “Do you think he’d take it for just the rest of the year?” I said, “Call him and ask him.” He said, “Will you call him and ask him?” I said “Sure.” So we’re at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Kansas City and I call Popeye’s room. I said, “Look, they’re gonna fire D.J. and want to know if you’ll take over the club for just the rest of the year.” He said, this is exactly what he said, “Hawk,” he said, “I’ll take it on a day-to-day contract.” The irony, too, was that when they’re fired Zimm, they wanted me to take over the club. Finally, I determined that this is not a good deal because my wife doesn’t understand what it would be like to be married to a high-profile manager in Boston with a bad temper.
On the broadcasting advice he received from Curt Gowdy and Howard Cosell:
It was Curt first. He called me up. … He says, “I’m coming to the ballpark today. I want to talk to you.” I said, “Ok.” So he comes in, we talk and he says, “Ok, I’ve been watching you now for a while.” He says, “You’ve got a chance to be a hell of an announcer.” He says, “I’m gonna give you the best piece of advice you’ll ever get: Don’t try to please everybody.” So a couple weeks later, Coach calls me up, [Howard] Cosell. He says, “We’re coming into Boston.” He says, “I want to talk to you.” He comes in, he says, “I’m going to give you the best piece of advice you’re ever gonna get in broadcasting. One of these days, you got a chance to be a hell of a broadcaster, but don’t try to please everybody.” It was amazing because it was in a space of like two weeks. It was, like, weird. But they were both right, both right. You cannot please everybody, especially in a two-team city. … Over the years, I’ve had a lot of critics and I’ve had a lot of love. I’ll tell you what, obviously I love the love better, but I don’t mind the critics at all.
On the differences in the personalities of Ken and “Hawk” Harrelson:
Ken Harrelson is a different guy than Hawk. Ken is a guy who is very shy, introverted and people who know me know this. Hawk, on the other side of the page, is the guy who’s protected me all my life. It was a way to handle my fear. It was a way to handle my insecurity because I was afraid. Hawk wasn’t.
Harrelson on the rivalry between Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio:
Ted Williams and I are having dinner. This is after I’m retired, I’m broadcasting now, and Ted comes down to Spring Training. We’re talking, and [of] all the 150 hours we talked on hitting, I never talked to him about DiMaggio. Finally, I said, “Tell me about DiMaggio,” because they didn’t like each other at all. I said, “Ted, tell me about that trade where DiMaggio was going to come to Fenway. You’re going to go to Yankee Stadium with that little short porch out there.” He says, “To hell with Yankee Stadium.” He said, “Put me in Detroit.” I said, “Well, how many home runs would you have averaged in Detroit?” He said, “75 a year,” and you got to believe him. I said, “Well, tell me about DiMaggio.” He goes, “He’s the best right-handed hitter I ever saw.” I had never talked with Joe about baseball. This is amazing. I said, “Joe, tell me about Ted Williams and that trade [where] you were going to go to Fenway and he was going to go to New York.” I said, “How many home runs would you have averaged in Fenway?” He said, “Probably around 70 a year,” but you got to believe him. I said, “Well, tell me about Ted.” He goes, “He’s the best left-handed hitter I ever saw.” Almost verbatim, the two of them.
Harrelson on his relationship with Mickey Mantle:
Mickey and I were tight. We played a lot of golf together. We ran together a lot. We had a lot of fun. Mickey never realized how much we loved him. I played against Mickey for six years. I played against Mickey the last game he ever played, 1968 [at] Fenway Park. [Ralph] Houk sent him up to pinch hit. We all knew it was his last game. I’m standing in right field, crying. I look over at Yaz in left field, he’s crying. I couldn’t see the infielders, but I guarantee you some of them were crying too. People never realized, or Mickey didn’t, how much we loved him.
I love that guy. He told me, “Hawk,” he says, “the worst thing I ever did in my life was name one of my kids Mickey, Jr.” He said, “But how the hell did I know I was going to grow up to be Mickey Mantle?”.
Harrelson on the biggest moment of his broadcasting career:
The biggest moment for me is [Mark] Buehrle’s perfect game. The reason is because of Mark Buehrle, the person. Mark Buehrle is my all-time favorite White Sox player. … When you get a guy like Mark Buehrle, when he pitched that perfect game, I cried.
On dining with boxer Rocky Marciano a few days before Marciano’s death in a plane crash:
We were at the Continental Hotel. I was playing with Cleveland. Tony Horton and I had gone over to have dinner and the maître d’ comes over and he says, “Mr. Harrelson?” I said, “Yes?” He says, “Mr. Marciano is upstairs. He’d like for you and your friends to come up and have some birthday cake with him.” This is only like two, three days before he crashed and got killed, he was going to Iowa for something. I had met Rocky before. He was a baseball fan, a Red Sox fan and everything. We started talking and everything, and I ask him, I said, “Rocky, what would you have done with Cassius Clay?” He said, “Hawk, he’s the fastest heavyweight that ever lived.“ He said, “And he would’ve cut me up. But in 15 rounds, I would’ve caught him and I would’ve knocked him out.” Then he said, “I heard you used to box. A friend of mine told me he saw you box once.” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “What if I could promote a fight with you and Sonny Liston?” This is 1969. I said, “Well, he’d probably knock me out.” I said, “How much money are you talking about?” He goes, “Well, how much money do you want?” I said, “I’ll do it for $100,00.” He looks like this and he goes, “At Fenway Park, we’ll sell it out with you there.” I said, “$100,000, Rocky.” He goes, “Let’s do it!”
On meeting Vince Lombardi:
I couldn’t stand Vince Lombardi, being from Kansas City. After they beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, he said, “Well, there are a lot of teams in the NFL that can beat the Chiefs.” Boy, when he said that, I just snapped. Hawk got pissed. So now, I’m playing with Boston, doing pretty good. We walk in to go play the Senators in Washington. I’m going to go get an ice cream cone or a popsicle, and I see these two guys down the hallway down there. I recognize Lombardi, I didn’t recognize the other guy. I’m in just my shower shoes and shorts. I look and he goes, “Hawk, can I speak to you [for] a minute?” I didn’t like this guy. I open up the freezer, take out a popsicle, take off the top, very defiantly…I saunter down there. He says, “Hawk,” he says, “I’ve followed you.” He says, “You know, you could’ve played football for me.” Here’s a guy I did not like. We talked for about ten minutes. When I walked out of that room, I would’ve gone right through that freaking wall for him. When he got sick, I flew down from Boston to see him. That’s what kind of guy Vince Lombardi was.”
On Jack Nicklaus encouraging him to qualify for the 1972 British Open:
Jack and I started talking and playing some golf together. So in ’72, we were talking and he says, “Are you going to go over and try to qualify for the Open?” I said, “No.” He said, “Hawk, you should. You’re playing too good.” So I went home that night and I thought about it. I said, “Well, if Jack Nicklaus tells me that, I got to.” So I got the forms, filled them out and went over. We qualified at Gullane, which is a sister course to Muirfield. So I’m in the tournament. The first day, I shoot 75 and I hit six three-puts. I was knocking them six, seven feet by and missing them coming back. The next day, I had five three-puts and I missed the cut by a shot. I had 11 three-puts in two days and missed the cut by a shot, so that will tell you how good I was hitting it. But I didn’t know how to play. I didn’t know how to play and everything, when I was playing good, everything was ok. But if I double-bogeyed or bogeyed a hole, then Hawk got upset and that’s when the clubs started flying.
Been a busy couple days, but I wanted to re-visit the ratings for the All-Star Game.
