Walt Houk, who coached youth and semi-pro baseball in Lawrence for 35 years, paid tribute to his beloved second cousin every single game he worked.

Walt wore Ralph Houk’s jersey No. 35.

“I wrote a note to him several years ago and said I wore 35,” Walt Houk, second cousin of Ralph Houk, said Thursday.

Ralph, who was born and raised in Lawrence, went on to become a World War II hero and two-time World Series championship manager with the New York Yankees, died Wednesday in Winter Haven, Fla., at the age of 90.

“I had started the Maupintour Travellers (semi-pro team) and said since he was retired, if he moved back here I’d like him to coach third base, but I wore 35, and he couldn’t have that number.

“He wrote back and said, ‘I might do the coaching thing, but I’d have to have the number.’ I said I don’t have a job for him then,” Walt added, laughing.

Walt Houk spoke with his second cousin exactly once a year for the past many, many years.

“I last talked to him on Aug. 9, his birthday,” Walt said. “His birthday is the same day as my wife’s birthday. We were married that day. Our first grandson was born on that day. I’d call Ralph every year on Aug. 9, and we’d have a good chat. I’d bring him up to date on the grandkids. I have on my calendar right here to call him Aug. 9.”

Walt recently sent Ralph a letter bragging on Walt’s grandson, Chase.

“I sent him a picture of Chase in a catcher’s position and said, ‘We’re trying to keep the Houk tradition going,”’ Walt said, noting 11-year-old Chase, just like former Yankee catcher Ralph, plays backstop.

Ralph worked 20 years as a big-league manager, not only leading the Yankees but also the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers in a career that spanned three decades.

“Ralph was a player’s manager,” said Walt, who won over 1,000 games himself in his work as a coach in Lawrence. Ralph Houk managed 3,157 games and won 1,619 with a winning percentage of .514.

“He was the kind of manager who, if his players got into a fight, he’d be right in there fighting with them. He stood up for those players. He argued a lot with the umpires, got thrown out a lot of ballgames. Those are things I mimicked and did, too,” added Walt, who was chased from a few games in his time.

Ralph Houk, who was a star football quarterback at Liberty Memorial High and also competed in basketball and track, will be buried in Florida next to his late wife, Betty.

He’ll always be remembered back here, however.

“He was a baseball guy all the way,” Walt said. “He was a great person. When he had the Yankees, I took our Little League team into Kansas City for the game. He’d take the kids down into the dugout and talk to them.

“I’d go in and chat with him in his office. He had a lot of relatives in the area who went to the games. He’d get them tickets and have time for everybody.”

Services for Ralph Houk are expected to be next week in Florida. No details are yet available.

Honoring Ralph: The Yankees will wear black armbands for the rest of the season to honor former manager Houk and observed a moment of silence before Thursday’s night game against the Royals. The armband will appear below the Bob Sheppard patch on the left sleeve of their jerseys. Sheppard, the longtime Yankee Stadium public-address announcer, died July 11. The Yankees are also wearing a patch on the chest in memory of former team owner George Steinbrenner, who died last week.