Well, the month of May has been ANYTHING but Merry as this first week has been an unfortunate one. This past weekend, the torrential downpours that Nashvillians and Middle Tennesseans have experienced led to devastating and catastrophic consequences and not to mention that the Nashville Sounds, who came into Round Rock with the best record in the Pacific Coast League, have not fared well at all against a struggling Round Rock Express Team during the first couple of games. One may figure that after two straight rainouts that the team has appeared to be “out of sync” and perhaps so.
The baseball season is a marathon and every team will have its share of peaks & valleys and the Sounds are certainly no exception.
Even though this is a Sounds blog, I want to devote the rest of today’s blog to a man who had contributed so much to the game of baseball. You think of the floods and Sounds’ losses, but they still must take a back seat for the moment after the passing of the legendary Voice of the Detroit Tigers, Ernie Harwell.
Yesterday, Harwell lost his brave battle with cancer at the age of 92. Here was a man who was devoted to his family, his country (he was an ex-Marine) and of course, to the game of baseball and the broadcasting field. Harwell spent 55 seasons as a Major League Baseball Announcer. He also covered NFL and College Football in his illustrious career, but he will always be synonymous with our National Pastime.
When Ernie was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor at the bile duct last September, he handled the situation just like he did the others: with grace and class. Here is a man who continued to exercise every morning and to take care of himself to be in the utmost physical condition. Ernie was happily married for nearly 70 years, being blessed with four children, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. I did not grow up in Detroit to listen to Ernie. However, I first heard him as a child when he broadcast for the Detroit Tigers on NBC Radio during the 1968 World Series when his Tigers came from behind to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. St. Louis was one game away from winning their second straight World Series Title and their third in five seasons. However, Detroit came back to win three straight games to take the championship. 1968 was an embattled year for the United States, thanks to the Vietnam War, riots in our major cities, other civil disturbances and the tragedy of losing two prominent men in the likes of Martin Luther King and New York State Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy’s Death hit me since he was the Senator in my home state and it was the second Kennedy in less than five years to be tragically killed. Detroit itself went through a horrible riot the previous July in 1967, leaving death and destruction.
The City of Detroit needed something soothing and the Tigers and Ernie’s voice provided that comfort. His voice was heard nightly on WJR Radio with the sounds of Denny McLain striking out batters, en route to winning 31 games that year; Norm Cash and Willie Horton’s power hitting and the great defensive wizardry of Centerfielder Mickey Stanley. Ernie was the Voice for those people who suffered in Detroit in the late 1960s and for many years beyond that. Ernie also witnessed the Tigers winning the Championship in 1984
The one stir that was caused in 1991 was when then Tigers’ President (and former University of Michigan Football Coach) Bo Schembechler FIRED Ernie Harwell. Fired? Yes, fired! Apparently, Bo claimed that Ernie may have been too old (Ernie was 73 back then) and you wondered since Bo had been in Michigan as long as Ernie was, why he did such a thing? Fans in Detroit were outraged and you thought another riot would take place in the city like the one in 1967. Well, as always, Ernie handled everything with class. He would broadcast some games for the then California Angels in 1992, but when Detroit Red WIngs’ owner Mike Illitch purchased the Tigers, one of the very first things he did was hire Ernie Harwell back. Fans were relieved and for the next decade, Ernie’s voice cadence was heard and appreciated once again by the Tigers Fans on TV and Radio, even when the team moved from Tiger Stadium to Comerica Park. Ernie would retire after the 2002 season at the age of 84. He would still live in Michigan, do guest appearances, write books, do speaking engagements until his passing yesterday.
Harwell started his broadcasting career in 1940 at WSB Radio in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia and eventually received an opportunity to broadcast for the minor league Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association. He would get his major league break when the Crackers needed a minor league catcher from the Brooklyn Dodgers. At this time, Dodgers’ legendary broadcaster, Red Barber, was having some health issues and the club inquired about Ernie’s services when they spoke to Crackers’ owner, Earl Mann. Mann agreed to “trade” Harwell to the Dodgers for Catcher Cliff Dapper, who would eventually become the team’s field manager. Thus, a legendary broadcasting career was born. Harwell stayed with the Dodgers through 1949 and then in 1950, he was hired by the cross-town New York Giants baseball team. On October 3, 1951, Harwell and his partner, Russ Hodges, covered the National League Pennant-Deciding Playoff game against the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds. Harwell told Hodges that it was Ernie’s turn to do television. At the time, the Giants’ telecasts were on WPIX-TV in New York and NBC Television elected to carry the telecast. Ernie would announce the “shot heard ’round the world” when Giants’ outfielder hit the pennant-winning three run homer off the Dodgers’ Ralph Branca and the Polo Ground went wild. Unfortunately, in those days, games were not taped and there was no actual recording of Harwell’s call while Russ Hodges shouted six times “THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!” and a fan recorded it and mailed it to Hodges. Russ’ call on WMCA Radio became very famous and the call is still heard today and it will be heard forever. Ernie’s call, like Ernie himself, is gone forever and we will never know how it will sound.
Ernie became the first major league announcer in Baltimore when the St. Louis Browns moved to this great Maryland city and Ernie was the O’s leading voice throughout the 50s. Then in 1960, the Tigers had an opening and Harwell applied for it. He was hired by the ballclub and would stay in Michigan for the rest of his life.
Harwell would always start the baseball season with a special poem, dictating the end of winter and now spring and baseball is here. He was always famous for mentioning the “town” of where a fan was from whenever a foul ball was caught. When a batter would take a called third strike, Harwell would say, “He stood there like the house at the side of the road!”
Harwell was honored at Comerica Park last September, knowing that he had only months to live and made his speech as heartfelt as he possibly could.
Ernie may be gone, but he will always be remembered. What a long career and life. I hope that I will have the same kind of success that he’s had over the years. Harwell was more than a broadcaster. He was a mentor, a role model, a friend (albeit I never met him and I’m sad that I will never have the opportunity) and a tribute to the game, to the city of Detroit, to the state of Michigan, to the United States and to the whole world.
RIP, Ernie and God Bless You and Your Family. You will be missed, but no one will ever forget you!
- Posted on May 5, 2010 at 12:00 pm
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