Kenneth Smith Harrelson (born September 4, 1941), nicknamed "The Hawk" due to his distinctive profile, is an American former professional baseball All-Star first baseman and outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1971. He is most widely known for his 33-year tenure as a play-by-play broadcast announcer for the Chicago White Sox. In December 2019, Harrelson was named the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually to one broadcaster for "major contributions to baseball". Early life 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. Playing career 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 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 . Brought in to replace the injured Tony Conigliaro, Harrelson helped the team win the pennant, but watched the team drop the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. However, in , 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, . He had felt that his business ventures