Zalusky: Taking a trip back in time with Harrelson

Listening to Ken "Hawk" Harrelson reminisce about baseball is akin to taking a summer trip in the family car.

Only in this case, the scenery unraveling before your eyes is the vast terrain of baseball in the latter half of the 20th century and beyond.

You settle in for the leisurely journey, drifting along with the familiar cadences of his voice, as one anecdote flows into another.

Hawk's baseball odyssey began when he passed on opportunities to play college football and basketball to sign a contract with the Kansas City A's.

He explained, "My mom was divorced and making 56 bucks a week. She wanted me to get my education, but turning down $30,000 was just unheard of when you're making 56 bucks a week."

It could have been $50,000 from the Dodgers, but former major league catcher and A's scout Clyde Kluttz promised a swifter route to the majors with Kansas City, since the Dodgers farm system was more developed.

Not that the A's, who were building the nucleus of the 1970s dynasty, were lacking talent. One A's prospect was Tony LaRussa.

In the minors, Hawk established himself as a power hitter, setting Eastern League records in 1962 with Binghamton with 38 home runs and 138 runs driven in.

He clubbed one of those homers, a 500-foot blast that scaled the center-field wall and a three-flat building behind it, off Elmira's Steve Dalkowski, a legendary Baltimore Orioles farmhand who never pitched in the majors, despite a fastball clocked at 110 mph.

"Nobody had a fastball like Steve Dalkowski, but he couldn't throw strikes," he said. "If you were a (right-handed hitter) you were OK, because the ball moved up and away maybe a foot, foot-and-a-half."

Promoted to the big club in 1963, he made his debut in Kansas City against the White Sox, striking out as a pinch-hitter against Juan Pizarro in a 4-3 loss.

On July 13, Hawk was in the lineup as Cleveland's Early Wynn, after several attempts, finally nailed down his 300th win.

Wynn toiled five innings, yielding four runs, three of them in the fifth when Hawk, who had singled, scored along with LaRussa and Jose Tartabull on a double by Jerry Lumpe.

Jerry Walker relieved Wynn in the sixth and pitched four scoreless innings to secure the 7-4 win.

"He pitched like a man possessed. You could see we were not going to score off him. He was going to get that win for Gus," he said, referring to Wynn's nickname, Gloomy Gus.

With the A's, Hawk crossed paths with such Chicago baseball legends as Gabby Hartnett, Luke Appling and Jimmy Dykes, who were coaching in the organization.

"Gabby and I used to talk about catching, and I asked him one day, 'What's the first priority for a catcher,' and he said, 'Hawk, the first priority of a catcher is get a guy in a rhythm and keep him there. Sometimes you can do it early. Sometimes it might take three or four innings.'"

As for Dykes, "I couldn't bear that cigar. That smoke just killed me."

Appling figured directly in Hawk's fate - he was named interim manager when A's Manager Alvin Dark was fired. His public reaction to Dark's firing led to Hawk's release by A's owner Charles Finley.

The day he was released, Hawk went to the ballpark in Baltimore to get his gear. By that time, he had already started talking to other clubs.

Appling called him into his office and said, "Charlie said he made a mistake and he wants you back. and if you'll come back, then he'll raise your salary from $12,000 to $25,000.

"I said, 'Luke, I've already been offered $118,000.'

"He said, 'Take the money.'"

Hawk said that before signing with the Red Sox for $150,000 he had entertained offers from other clubs, including the Atlanta Braves and even a team in Japan.

Hawk's time in Boston was highlighted by a World Series appearance in 1967, but his best season, oddly enough, came in 1968 during the "year of the pitcher," when the mound was 15 inches high. It was lowered to 10 inches the next year. Hawk led the league that year with 109 runs batted in and clobbered 35 homers.

With the higher mound, "I think it gave them a false sense of velocity. I think the pitchers thought they could throw it by anybody with that extra height. I looked at it as a plus for me and unfortunately a lot of other guys didn't."

If Hawk found the height of the mound something of an advantage, he found Comiskey Park's watered down area in front of home plate, tended by Sox groundskeeper Gene Bossard, frustrating.

"I remember hitting, I think it was off Joe Horlen. I couldn't hit him with a tennis racket. He threw me a sinker, and I just nailed it. And it hit about five feet out in front of home plate and stuck right in the mud."

The catcher picked up the ball and threw to first base for the out.

Hawk's last major league stop as a player was Cleveland, where he was reunited with Manager Alvin Dark.

"That's the only reason that I decided to go was because of Alvin, because I loved him like a dad. He finally talked me into coming over there. Because I wasn't going to go."

Putting away his bat and picking up a microphone, Hawk eventually reached Chicago, carving a niche in the city's baseball history, but it wasn't easy at first. He and partner Don Drysdale had a tough act to follow, the popular duo of Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall.

But Sox fans soon warmed up to the new announcing team. Watching vintage games today, their style stands the test of time.

"Don, to me, was the best baseball announcer I ever heard. He taught me so much. He taught me how to pace, the pacing of the game. Baseball has its own personality, its own pacing."

Hawk's baseball odyssey was supposed to lead to Cooperstown this year, but, as a result of COVID-19, that will have to wait. One thing is certain. When the ceremony takes place, the audience will get to hear some great stories.

You can put that one on the board.