Pretty cool article on ex-Red Aaron Harang and his tribute to Nuxie:
Aaron Harang gets the start for the Dodgers on Wednesday in Surprise against the Royals. He was one of a few Dodgers to change his uniform number this season, switching from 44 to 41. Since it was highly unlikely that non-roster invitee Dallas McPherson (who has been released by the Dodgers) forced the change, I decided to ask Harang the reason for the number switch. What was found was a personal relationship dating back to his days in Cincinnati.
Joe Nuxhall was the youngest pitcher ever to appear in a major league game, at just 15 when he pitched one game for the Reds in 1944. Nuxhall found his way back to the Reds at age 23, and won 135 games in a 16-year career, all but about a year and a half in Cincinnati.
Nuxhall moved to the broadcast booth in 1967 and called Reds games for 38 years, including Harang’s first two seasons in Cincinnati, in 2003-2004. The two struck up a friendship that lasted until Nuxhall’s death in 2007. Harang has donated to Nuxhall’s charity foundation, the Miracle Fields in and around Cincinnati, and still keeps in touch with his son to this day.
“He was just a special guy in general,” Harang said. “Everybody who came in contact with him thought the world of him.”
In 2008, Harang won the Joe Nuxhall Good Guy Award from the Cincinnati chapter of the BBWAA, an award that has special to him.
“It was just cool that I can have something to tie to such a special person,” Harang said. “He meant so much to Cincinnati in general, but baseball as well. It’s an honor to be tied to someone like that.”
Read the entire article. It shows, once again, what a class act Aaron Harang is.
I’m sure the rest of Redleg Nation joins me in wishing him great success (except against the Reds).