Hal's Latest Victory Is A Spot In Cooperstown

The phone call was a complete surprise to Harold. The 70-year-old Detroit native, now living in the suburbs, had hoped and prayed this special call would come through.

And now, as he listened to the voice of a Tampa Tribune reporter, he was in shock.

"Congratulation, Harold - you've been named to the Baseball Hall of Fame!"

What was Harold "Prince Hal" Newhouser's first reaction to the news? "Paul, I thought he was kidding me. I didn't know what to think," Newhouser said.

Even after the Detroit-area and national media began calling him for quotes, and stopping by for photos, he didn't fully believe his 30-year wait had ended.

"I told them, "You know, I haven't even been called by the Veteran's Committee, so I can't even verify that I've actually made it," Newhouser said. "And what's really funny is, the committee had my old phone number, not the new one, so they couldn't get a hold of me initially. Then the phone lines were all tied up, and they couldn't get through."

Verification finally came on St. Patrick's Day, and now Newhouser can circle August 2 on his calendar. The day his bronze mug joins baseball's other immortals on the Cooperstown walls.

Now, I never saw Hal Newhouser pitch for the Detroit Tigers. Never witnessed the lanky southpaw earn any of his 207 victories, or his 1945 World Series-clinching triumph over the Chicago Cubs.

No, I never saw him pitch. I did much better. I batted against the newest addition to the Baseball Hall of Fame. One of the perks of growing up with a former baseball pitcher as a next-door neighbor.

When playing pick-up streetball while in junior high and high school, I would trot to Newhouser's house and ask our resident baseball pitcher to toe the slab for us.

Newhouser, ever the kind and generous one, would always agree to take his place on our makeshift mound. Even after a full day on the job. He'd pitch an inning or two, then let us go back to facing someone of our own size and age.

When not facing us on the mound, Newhouser would tell us stories, such as about his duels with Cleveland Indian pitching rival Bob Feller. I might have grown up during the Tiger "depression years" of Jason Thompson and Duke Sims, but was brought up on the gospel of Hank Greenberg and Virgil Trucks.

And for years, we rooted for Newhouser to be voted into Cooperstown, where the best of the best are represented.

He was our neighbor, our friend.

But somewhere along the way, the voters - baseball's writers and Veteran's Committee - shoved Newhouser to the side. The excuse was, his best years came during World War II, when many of the top players were overseas.

Newhouser was voted the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1944-45, the only pitcher - and one of only nine players ever - to win the honor back-to-back. he won 29 games in '44, 25 more in '45 and a pair in the World Series that year.

In fact, 1945 saw Newhouser win the rare Pitcher's Triple Crown - leading the AL in wins, strikeouts and earned run average. He is the last AL pitcher to do this.

Newhouser acknowledges his wartime success. "But I won more than 200 games in 17 years," he said. "What about the other 150?"

What about those other seasons? Indeed, when the Boys of Summer came home after the war, the Detroit-born pitcher proceeded to win 26, 17, 21, 18 and 15 games the following five seasons - all with the league at full strength. This success, Newhouser said, should have been enough to quiet the critics.But he waited. Newhouser waited for the call since the early 1960s, never knowing if he was close to making the cut. he felt he belonged, but had no control over the decision.

Waiting is something Newhouser had to learn over the years, because when he had his game face on, he was the 1940s "Angry Young Man." He - and others - remember those tirades, when he would shatter light bulbs in the player's tunnel after being yanked from the mound.

But since leaving the field, Newhouser has mellowed. The Hal Newhouser I know does not resemble the one I missed by a few decades.

Except in the win column, where Hal's 208th victory is his ticket to Cooperstown.

Congratulations, Hal. The voters finally figured out something I've known for years.

This article originally appeared in the Ogemaw County Herald.