I know it's usually Pete posting about baseball (and me about hockey), but it's my turn for a baseball post.
Ernie Harwell, the long-time Detroit Tigers radio and TV announcer died tonight at age 92 after a battle with cancer. The voice of the summers of my childhood has been quieted and a piece of the innocence in all of us goes with it. He was a good man who got to spend his life around the game he loved and was able to share it with all of us with humility, class, and an abundance of grace.
If you didn't grow up within earshot of the 50,000 watts of WJR in Detroit, you probably can't quite understand this, but trust me when I say the man's voice simply WAS summer. It WAS baseball. It WAS childhood. It WAS Detroit. And it WAS innocence. And it was all of those things for several generations of Tigers fans.
No matter what was happening in my beleaguered hometown, from riots, to unemployment, to corruption, to an exodus, Ernie was the constant. And every year, spring came and anything was possible for Detroit when Ernie came on the radio to call a Tigers game. He stood above all the problems of that city with elegance, grace, class and never a nasty word for anyone.
If there's a heaven, he's in front of a microphone right now describing one helluva an all-star game, with none less of a star than he. Thanks for everything Ernie.
I still miss the sound of Joe Nuxhall's voice on Reds broadcasts so I sympathize, Steve.
Posted by: Bob Lawson | May 05, 2010 at 08:32 AM
As a kid who grew up on radio baseball I know the value of the the "Voice of the Team". In Baltimore we had Check Thompson and when we summered in Cape May, NJ I listened to the Voice of the Phillies, Harry Kalas as he would announce Michael Jack Schmidt coming to the plate. I caught some of Mel Allen as well the Scooter Phil Rizzuto out of NY at times as well as Joe Nuxhall when I lived in Cincy. These voices, which Harwell was one, are like smelling mom's pies and dad's bar-b-q they only ever elicit the best of memories. RIP Ernie.
Posted by: Brian Baugus | May 05, 2010 at 02:10 PM
I'd like to echo Bob's comments -- I grew up in Cincinnati in the 1970's. Marty and Joe were the voice of baseball to me, so with Joe Nuxhall's passing a few years back I can relate to what losing Ernie must be like.
Posted by: Jeffrey Ellis | May 05, 2010 at 10:38 PM
Amen to that , steve. I know exactly what you mean.
Posted by: Staffaction | May 06, 2010 at 04:18 PM
One of my first memories is of listening to the Tigers. You "remember" the many pinch hit home runs by Gates Brown, but it's really the words spoken over the radio by Ernie that created those memories.
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