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 ...
“A piece of my youth passed away yesterday...”
I agree, I feel like I have officially lost all vestiges of my childhood. Some of my best memories are sitting on the lake with my dad, fishing for blue gill and listening to Ernie call a game.
RIP Ernie, you deserve it.
Amen, nothing better than warm summer night on a lake in Northern Michigan, listening to Ernie and Paul call a Tigers game. Don’t forget his trusted engineer Howard Stitzel. God Bless the Tigers and God Bless Ernie Harwell. He was the voice of Michigan for a generation (or two).
RIP Ernie and my prayers for Miss Lulu.
Salute! Ernie fought the good fight, he finished the race, he kept the faith.
Vin Scully used to do the Saturday Game of The Week on NBC with his partner former St. Louis Cardinals Catcher Joe Garagiola.
What a treat it was to listen to those two on a Saturday afternoon, and all the stories they used to tell during the games.
I am fortunate to have 2 baseballs signed by Ernie and Paul, which are a combination 1968 and 1984 balls. I also have a autographed picture of Ernie & Paul when they were doing appearances for Central Michigan Lumber. I got one when they were at Burlingame Lumber in Grand Rapids.
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