Ernie Harwell, a class act

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

We're just hearing in the newsroom that long-time Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell died today. He's possibly the most popular person in Michigan.

I've had the pleasure of meeting him several times. A very gracious, classy person.

[Guest themetfairy]

He always seemed to be that way.

RIP Ernie

[seawolf17]

I cried like a baby when Murph died. Sad, sad day for the Tigers community.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

So long Ernie.

[Gwreck]

Ernie will always be one of those top-tier announcers for me, forever up there with Vin, Bob, Red Barber and Mel Allen. RIP

[Guest Swan Swan H]

A sad day for a lot of folks in Michigan, no doubt.

He was scheduled to be one of the honorees at WFUV's annual gala tomorrow night, along with Levon Helm and Bob Schieffer.

[metirish]

I remember when Bob Murphy died Ernie had somd very kind words about him, he also lamented that there weren't many of " them" left.

RIP

[Guest Kong76]

I cried too when Murphy died, you spend so much time listening and
watching with the long-timers and it's sad to see them pass. RIP to
Ernie and condolences to Tigers fans (one of my nif's is a huge one).

[Guest Edgy DC]

I link him with Kalas and Bob Murphy --- three genial gentlemen beloved by fanbases where gentility didn't always reign.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Hagin was saying that shortly after they Met, Harwell asked Wayne for his phone number. Wayne thought, "Huh, sure, I guess?" He gave him the number and forgot about it until Harwell called him in the middle of the winter. "I was the number three broadcaster for the Oakland A's and he was calling me to ask how my off-season was going."

[Met Hunter]

Swan Swan H wrote: A sad day for a lot of folks in Michigan, no doubt. He was scheduled to be one of the honorees at WFUV's annual gala tomorrow night, along with Levon Helm and Bob Schieffer.

He still is scheduled for that award. Al Kaline will be there to accept. With a heavier heart than originally planned I'm sure.

[Frayed Knot]

Maybe the last of the group (Barber, Mel Allen and others) with their announcer roots in the southern story-teller tradition.
Now you wonder if a schtick-less announcer like him would even get hired today.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

The low point of Bo Schembechler's tenure as Tigers' president was "retiring" Harwell back in the early 90s, the two guys who replaced him, Rick Rizz or something like that was one of them, really weren't too bad. But they never had a chance.

Newsrooms are pretty jaded places, and we get governors and senators and people running for president in here and a lot of people don't get excited. But Harwell was up here a couple years ago on behalf of one of the banks and the place went nuts.

[G-Fafif]

What an honor to be a fan of the same game for which this man spoke for so personally, passionately and eloquently, literally right to the end. His farewell address last September, replayed on MLB Network last night, was, in its matter of factness, moving beyond belief.

Ernie Harwell may have belonged to Michigan, but let's not forget he was a part of our roots, too, a voice of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants -- and his move from the Baltimore Orioles left open a seat for Bob Murphy two years before Murph became a Met.

In the end, he was baseball's.

[bmfc1]

"if baseball could talk, it would sound like Ernie Harwell"

Beautiful stuff from Mitch Albom:

http://www.freep.com/article/20100505/COL01/5050493/1358/SPORTS/Gone-now-but-never-forgotten

[MFS62]

Who can ever forget one of the key voices from their childhood?
RIP Ernie.

Later

[G-Fafif]

Ernie Harwell defines baseball on the occasion of his acceptance of the Ford C. Frick Award at Cooperstown in 1981.

Baseball is the President tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That's baseball. And so is the big, fat guy with a bulbous nose running home one of his 714 home runs. There's a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh forty-six years ago. That's baseball. So is the scout reporting that a sixteen year old pitcher in Cheyenne is a coming Walter Johnson. Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic. In baseball democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rulebook. Color merely something to distinguish one team's uniform from another. Baseball is a rookie. His experience no bigger than the lump in his throat as he begins fulfillment of his dream. It's a veteran too, a tired old man of thirty-five hoping that those aching muscles can pull him through another sweltering August and September. Nicknames are baseball, names like Zeke and Pie and Kiki and Home Run and Cracker and Dizzy and Dazzy. Baseball is the cool, clear eyes of Rogers Hornsby. The flashing spikes of Ty Cobb, an over aged pixie named Rabbit Maranville. Baseball just a came as simple as a ball and bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, a business and sometimes almost even a religion. Why, the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World Series catch. And then dashing off to play stick ball in the street with his teenage pals. That's baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying, "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.� Baseball is cigar smoke, hot roasted peanuts, The Sporting News, ladies day, "Down in Front", Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and the Star Spangled Banner. Baseball is a tongue tied kid from Georgia growing up to be an announcer and praising the Lord for showing him the way to Cooperstown. This is a game for America. Still a game for America, this baseball![

[G-Fafif]

Must read: Joe Posnanski.

[Centerfield]

I'm cutting out early today and letting my kid hit some off the tee.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's the meat, and sweet meat it is. The full text is longer, and he was introduced not by a fellow announcer (at least not a fellow Hall of Fame announcer), but Ralph Kiner.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hof/Ernie_Harwell_HOF_Induction.shtml

I honestly had no idea the Mets had any Ernie Harwell DNA in their makeup. God job, G-Fafif.

[MFS62]

Beautiful.
I wonder how Ernie felt about how things changed since he gave that speech.
You can't smoke in ballparks any more, and, those "tired old men of thirty-five" now can go to the Americal League and DH for five more years.
Both are a shame.

Thanks.

Later

[metirish]

Edgy DC wrote: Hagin was saying that shortly after they Met, Harwell asked Wayne for his phone number. Wayne thought, "Huh, sure, I guess?" He gave him the number and forgot about it until Harwell called him in the middle of the winter. "I was the number three broadcaster for the Oakland A's and he was calling me to ask how my off-season was going."

From the Albom bit.....

Ernie. He once wrote that his heroes were sportswriters. I guess we loved him for that. But I can tell you that whenever a new sportswriter or broadcaster came to town, Ernie would greet him as if we were lucky to have him. He never played the kingpin. Never acted like a boss checking out the new kid. Not with journalists. Not with players. He made humility his calling card, he shook hands and drawled, "Welcome to the Tigahs" or "Good to have ya here," and it usually would be someone else who would nudge the new guy and say, "Do you know who that is? That's Ernie Harwell. THE Ernie Harwell."

Some great reading here today

[G-Fafif]

Ronnie related last night that when he was traded to Oakland and made his first trip to Detroit, Ernie came up to him in the clubhouse, told him he'd heard and read so much about him and wanted to meet him. They spent the next half-hour chatting about everything but baseball -- a rarity in baseball, Darling said.

[Gwreck]

Howie was telling a great story on the broadcast (a few weeks ago) about his first visit to Tiger Stadium in 1997 with the Mets for interleague play and how he also had a tremendously warm reception from Ernie at that time.

[bmfc1]

Ken Levine has a great story:

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2010/05/ernie-harwell.html

[G-Fafif]

Met-rofitted homage here.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

So the Tigers have Mr. Harwell in repose at Comerica Park today, next to his statue. It's an open casket. There are lots of wire photos of people snapping photos as they walk past the casket, some shooting video.

Seems to me that's at best disrespectful and at worst kinda creepy. Am I wrong?

[G-Fafif]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: So the Tigers have Mr. Harwell in repose at Comerica Park today, next to his statue. It's an open casket. There are lots of wire photos of people snapping photos as they walk past the casket, some shooting video. Seems to me that's at best disrespectful and at worst kinda creepy. Am I wrong?

Kind of tacky, to say the least. I believe George Costanza did something similar to get a bereavement fare from an airline.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I remember seeing photos of Pope John Paul II's body during his funeral. I think they were carrying him around somehow attached to a board.

I'd probably prefer not to be photographed after I'm dead, but I'm not sure why. We live in a culture that often puts people on display temporarily after they die. Maybe it's the permanence of a photo that's a little off-putting?