There are not enough pages in this newspaper to do justice to the late Ernie Harwell, who passed away Tuesday at age 92.
Many know him as the voice of the Detroit Tigers, a position he held for more than 40 years. How good was he at his job? In 1948, while serving as the voice of the minor league Atlanta Crackers, Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, heard him broadcasting games and wanted him so badly that he traded catching prospect Cliff Dapper to Atlanta for Harwell. It’s the only time in baseball history that a team traded a player for an announcer.
I met Harwell in Lakeland, Fla., the winter home of the Tigers, in 1977. I was in college doing stringer work for Mutual Radio and serving as the part-time radio voice of the Tampa Tarpons of the Florida State League. He was kind enough to talk about what it took to be a good baseball announcer and even listened to my tape, which he took with him. He told me to meet him back at the park the next day, and he did a one-hour critique of my work, complete with advice on how to get better. It was the start of a friendship that lasted more than 30 years.
There are countless people in the radio business who have stories like mine because Harwell was all about helping people. The men he talked about during the games were like family to him. He was like a father — and sometimes a grandfather — to many of the Tigers players. He was a well-rounded man who could talk about anything. He would talk about music, literature and the issues of the day, not just with the Tigers but also with players from the other teams who would make a point to spend time with him.
Harwell started with the Dodgers in 1949 but then moved over in 1950 to broadcast for the Giants. His replacement was a young kid from Fordham University named Vin Scully. Harwell was with the Giants from 1950 to 1953, then became part of the Baltimore Orioles broadcast team until 1959. In 1960, he landed the Tigers job, and with the powerful signal of WJR, the Midwest fell in love with one of the greatest storytellers in sportscasting history. Tigers fans loved Harwell but not as much as he loved them. He truly was a special person, one who will be missed by the many fans he had both in and out of baseball.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
