Posted on 05/04/2010 7:26:15 PM PDT by petenmi
The voice that we fell asleep to while listening to baseball games on transistor radios, the one that called Detroit Tigers games for four decades and became part of our lives, has gone silent.
Ernie Harwell died Tuesday of cancer. He was 92.
Harwell was the 1981 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, placing him in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown as a broadcaster. He said that his induction speech and the Christian testimony he gave at a Billy Graham Crusade in Tampa were the two most memorable speaking engagements of his life.
He loved God, baseball, his family and countless friends.
"When you met Ernie Harwell, you walked away feeling you were his best friend," said Tigers radio broadcaster Jim Price, who first met Harwell as a rookie catcher with Detroit in 1967. "People who never met him before would say, 'It's like I've known him forever.'
(Excerpt) Read more at mlive.com ...
God bless Ernie Harwell, he was a great man of God and baseball announcer. I hope Sparky Anderson can be there.
Ernie was a man of God and a true icon in the world of baseball. Ernie Harwell will be missed. R.I.P.
I think he’s worth 3.
Ernie lived his life the way God wants us to...he truly knew God. Now, sadly for the rest of us, he is with God.
Thank you Ernie...
Listening to Ernie was a unique experience. It total ear candy to hear Ernie call a game. What a loss.
Ernie was perhaps the last of the great baseball announcers during baseball’s golden age of radio. There were some excellent radio broadcasters, but Ernie was the best.
There is one more of those remaining. Vin Scully of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Vin was also an outstanding broadcaster, although he was (slightly) better on the radio than TV in my opinion. Growing up in MI, however, I only got to listen to Vin when I traveled to CA. In MI, I could pick up games from the eastern seaboard to the Mississippi, and sometimes as far south as Atlanta.
I attended what I think was the last game he broadcast. It was in Toronto so you were unable to hear him if you were at the stadium but IIRC the crowd gave him a standing ovation when the jumbotron announced he was there doing his last game.
I just checked the article and the photo caption says Sept 22 2002 was his last game with Detroit playing the Yankees but Detroit ended that season in Toronto on Sunday Sept. 29 and I was at that game. I recall at the time a lot of announcements that that was his final game but perhaps the Sept 22 game was his final home game. I can’t say I am 100% sure but that is how I recall it.
Thanks for the post. R.I.P. Mr. Ernie Harwell. Thank you, sir.
A very sad day. A geat man, a great broadcaster, a great enthusiast for the game, which needs all of those it can get.
One of the greats is gone and the world is a little poorer, but much enriched by his having been here.
I first encountered Ernie when I was at Hillsdale and I would tune into any game if he was calling it.
Fortunately, I own a computer baseball game and Ernie is the voice of it, so I’m not goign completely without hearing his voice again.
Harwell is truly one of the great legends in baseball broadcasting along with the likes of Mel Allen, Jack Buck, Harry Caray, and Vin Scully. I'm glad that Scully is still around because he's the platinum standard for radio sports broadcasting, in my humble opinion.
Three indeed
Be sure to check out Ernies farewell speech from Comerica park last year. Its truly inspirational.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paWJl3qpUIM&feature=related
That night, the Tigers were also honoring Detroit WW II veterans. A good friend Marv, who is 84 years old, who I also play senior softball with, was given the honor of throwing out the game's first pitch.......
God Bless you, Ernie Harwell. I spent my youth in the 1970’s listening to Ernie and Paul....i remember those west coast trips in July, when the games did not start until 10 pm EST, and I had my old transistor radio tucked under my pillow, listening as long as I could stay awake.
I met Ernie in 1989 at a chance encounter at Tiger Stadium, while attending a game.
A piece of my youth passed away yesterday...
RIP Ernie......you never “stood like a house by the side of the road, and watched that one go by”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.