An Early Voice

I was watching election returns on Tuesday night when a different sort of news broke on the Associated Press wire, as word came that one of my early guideposts in radio, Ernie Harwell, had died from cancer.

Harwell was the longtime voice of the Detroit Tigers radio network.  It is safe to say that I have listened to his voice, and that of his colleague Paul Carey, more in my life than any other people on the radio.

Looking back, it wasn't hard to figure out why Harwell captured my imagination as a Little Leaguer in Detroit.  Harwell had a way of making you feel like you were at the game and that he was talking to you.

When a foul ball was hit in the stands, he would quickly say corny things like "And a fan from Hamtramack picked that one off!", leaving me puzzled at how Harwell knew the hometown of seemingly every fan sitting in Tiger Stadium.

I was the kid with the battery powered AM radio under his pillow, listening to the games late at night, intrigued not only by the score of the game, but also by how Harwell and Carey did their work.  And that went on long after we moved from Detroit after a four year stay that ended in 1977.

There were a lot of nights where I stayed up late in the Summer listening to Ernie and Paul, and then caught Harwell's recap the next morning after delivering the Detroit Free Press.

I guess I was learning the radio trade already.  Work late, and leave something different on tape for the next morning.  That's pretty much what I do every day now.

Most people remember Harwell's home run calls of "that one is long gone!" or "it's two for the price of one", but for me, I'll take his called strike three any day.

"Stood there like the house on the side of the road!" Harwell would say.

That one is long gone.
I was watching election returns on Tuesday night when a different sort of news broke on the Associated Press wire, as word came that one of my early guideposts in radio, Ernie Harwell, had died from cancer. Harwell was the longtime voice of the Detroit Tigers radio network.  It is ...