Ken Harrelson

Kenneth Smith Harrelson (born September 4, 1941), nicknamed "the Hawk" due to his distinctive profile, is an American former professional baseball player and television announcer. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1971 as a first baseman and outfielder, and he subsequently spent 33 years as a play-by-play broadcast announcer for the Chicago White Sox. In December 2019, Harrelson was named the 2020 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually to one broadcaster for "major contributions to baseball".

Harrelson was born in Woodruff, South Carolina, and his family moved to Savannah, Georgia, when he was in fifth grade. As a child Harrelson was interested in basketball and he hoped to pursue a basketball scholarship from the University of Kentucky. His parents divorced when he was eight.

He played golf, baseball, football and basketball at Benedictine Military School in Savannah, Georgia.

Throwing and batting right-handed, Harrelson played for four teams: the Kansas City Athletics (1963–66, 1967), Washington Senators (1966–67), Boston Red Sox (1967–69), and Cleveland Indians (1969–71). In his nine-season career, Harrelson was a .239 hitter with 131 home runs and 421 RBI in 900 games.

His time with the Athletics in 1967 ended abruptly after only 61 games, when Harrelson was quoted in a Washington newspaper calling team owner Charlie Finley "a menace to baseball" following the dismissal of manager Alvin Dark. Although Harrelson denied using the word "menace", he was released and ended up signing a lucrative deal with the Boston Red Sox, who were in contention to win their first pennant since 1946.

Brought in to replace the injured Tony Conigliaro, Harrelson hit a home run on his first at bat for Boston and helped the team win the pennant, but watched the team drop the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. However, in 1968, he had his finest season, making the American League All-Star team, hitting a career-high 35 home runs, and leading the major leagues in runs batted in with 109. He also finished third in the American League Most Valuable Player balloting, with two players from the pennant-winning Detroit Tigers finishing ahead of him—pitcher Denny McLain won the award and catcher Bill Freehan finished second.

Harrelson announced his retirement the day after he was traded along with Dick Ellsworth and Juan Pizarro from the Red Sox to the Indians for Sonny Siebert, Vicente Romo and Joe Azcue on April 19, 1969. He had felt that his business ventures made it impractical for him to move to any other city. His agent Bob Woolf added, "If Ken left Boston, he'd be losing between half a million and three quarter of a million dollars." Following conversations with commissioner Bowie Kuhn and a contract adjustment by Cleveland, Harrelson ended his first retirement a few days later. He went 2-for-4, including a triple in the first plate appearance of his Indians debut, an 11–3 loss to the New York Yankees at Cleveland Stadium on April 24. He finished the year with 30 home runs and a career-high 99 walks. He also used his local celebrity status to briefly host a half-hour TV show, The Hawk's Nest, on local CBS affiliate WJW-TV. Harrelson was very popular in Cleveland, with his autobiography coming out around the time of the trade to the Indians.

During spring training the following year, Harrelson suffered a broken leg while sliding into second base during a March 19 exhibition game against the Oakland Athletics. The injury kept him on the sidelines for much of the season. When Indians rookie Chris Chambliss took over the first base position in 1971, Harrelson retired mid-season to pursue a professional golf career.