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Elden Auker, who passed away last Friday at age 95, will be buried Wednesday in Vero Beach, Florida.
The Detroit Free Press has an excerpt of one of the last interviews Auker gave, from earlier in the year.
There's also a remembrance of him in Florida Today.
Auker pitched in two World Series, 1934 and 1935, going head-to-head with the likes of legends such as Dizzy Dean. The first time Ronald Reagan broadcast a World Series baseball game, he interviewed Auker before and afterward, a tidbit Auker had forgotten until he saw Reagan years later, when Reagan was California's governor.The men met at a function, and Auker was taken aback at how excited the future president was to see him.
"Elden Auker, my God, boy am I glad to see you," Reagan said. "You probably don't remember me, but I remember you."
Reagan then described every detail of a 1935 World Series game Auker pitched in, asking Auker if he remembered the young reporter who interviewed him.
"Not particularly," Auker told him.
"I was the guy," Reagan said. "The Chicago Cubs selected me as their official announcer for the World Series. It was my first big break, and a few years later I ended up in Hollywood."
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