"Baseball is a game of memories and heroes."
That's how Ken "Hawk" Harrelson launched his speech after being inducted into the Hall of Fame Saturday.
The iconic White Sox TV broadcast voice for 33 years before retiring at the end of the 2018 season, Harrelson was voted into Cooperstown as the 2020 Ford C. Frick Award winner for broadcasters.
He was supposed to enter the Hall last summer in front of a large outdoor crowd. COVID-19 pushed the ceremony back a year, and Harrelson happily settled for going into Cooperstown with an indoor speech that was taped Saturday and aired on Sunday.
Mickey Mantle figures prominently into Harrelson's earliest memories of Major League Baseball.
"I had my hero, his name was Mickey Mantle," Harrelson said. "When I was a kid, the Yankees came to Savannah (Ga.) to play an exhibition game against Cincinnati. I talked my mom into letting me skip school and she did. So the Yankees after the game came out, they still were in uniform because they were going to the buses to go back to the train to go north.
"I walked up to Mickey and said, 'Mickey, Mickey, can you sign an autograph please?' He didn't say anything, he just looked at me and kept walking. 'Mickey, Mickey, can you sign an autograph please?' He goes, 'Beat it, kid.' Broke my heart. So when I got to the big leagues, boy I wore his (bleep) out. I never let him forget that and we became very good friends."
Harrelson and Mantle were in the game at the same time from 1963-68.
Harrelson never left.
Joining the Red Sox as a broadcaster in 1975, he spent six seasons behind the microphone in Boston before joining the White Sox's booth in 1981.
Harrelson was also the White Sox's general manager for one year -- 1986- and he fired current manager Tony La Russa after a 26-38 start.
Overall, he was a part of MLB for eight decades. The 79-year-old Harrelson had quite a ride and, unlike Mantle, he always had time for everyone.
"I've had a great career," Harrelson said in front of a group of 23 family members and friends in Cooperstown. "I've been blessed. I was a great athlete and I had some great help in the booth. This is my favorite toast, I gave this at Arnold Palmer's 80th birthday and after it was over he hugged me and said, 'Thank you Hawk.'
"When you take a man's money, you take a man's money. But when you take a man's time, you take a part of his life. I want to thank you all for all the parts of eight decades of your time."
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