More Ralph Lawler stories

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Sometimes you need more than 50 inches to tell all the stories. Sometimes you send in 80 inches and your editor says, um, no, so you start whacking. But here’s the beauty of the Fab Forum. We can offer you some of the deleted stuff.

So today in the newspaper you can read about Clippers broadcaster Ralph Lawler, who always has been loyal to a team that almost always ends its season right about now.

And right here, on offer, are a couple of the nuggets that didn’t make the story. For example, here’s Lawler speaking about how he took on the challenge of helping former Clipper player Bill Walton overcome a speech impediment -- a stutter -- until Walton became such a talented broadcaster that he ended up on ESPN.

As odd couplish as the stately Lawler and free-spirited Walton might seem, they not only became broadcast partners, they also became dear friends. When Walton first got offered a talk show in San Diego while he was a Clipper, Lawler was the sidekick. Lawler would book guests, and Walton would do the interview -- but his stammer got in the way.

‘Bill would finish the interview and I would spend six hours in the studio with a razor blade splicing,’ Lawler said. Walton, who has no trace of a stammer any more, says this of Lawler: ‘He is the envy of all humanity, he has a wonderful family, a glamorous and inspirational wife, tremendous children and grandchildren, a job he loves that allows him to exhibit the creative and performing genius that he is. He saved me so many times as a player and a broadcaster.’

And here’s another thing. Lawler says Walton did the same for him. ‘Bill taught me something very important,’ Lawler said. ‘Bill taught me I needed to become less rigid and more me.’

Bill and his wife, Lori, even invited Ralph and his wife, Jo, on a kayaking trip in Arizona. A weeklong trip of camping, cooking out and being away from civilization. Ralph said he told Bill that Jo wouldn’t need to bring a curling iron. But they made the Zen-like trip. The curling iron came along.

Former Clipper Elton Brand shared a little tidbit of information. Brand said Lawler drove a Jaguar with the license plate ‘OMEOHMY,’ one of Lawler’s catchphrases. Lawler gently corrected Brand. ‘In the sake of accuracy, I do have the license plate,’ Lawler said, ‘but it’s on a Prius.’

There’s so much more to tell: Former broadcast partners and radio associates talking about Lawler’s perpetual preparation, and then there’s the story of how he once sent a young broadcaster out to an auto racetrack with a microphone and instructions to interview all the drivers. Lawler wanted something interesting to intersperse into a radio play-by-play of an auto race of not much consequence. He thought by using the voices of the drivers during the race, it would be more interesting. As far as anyone knew, that hadn’t been done before.

OK, even in the blog world there are space limitations so I’ll let go of the stories for now. But there will always be more about Ralph Lawler.

-- Diane Pucin