Good Thoughts for Ernie Harwell
Sep. 21st, 2009 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
filkertomI somehow missed this last week. Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell, the radio voice of the Detroit Tigers for decades, has inoperable cancer.
I have so many memories of listening to Tiger games when I was a kid, and all of them involve Harwell's warm, mellow voice. A true Southern gentleman with an evocative turn of phrase, he made every game seem both important and yet still fun, blending statistics, play-by-play, and anecdotes with little things like, "And a youngster from Sanilac, Michigan caught that foul ball". I always wondered how he could possibly know.
Mitch Albom has an article about how Ernie's facing this, with information about a charity book launch later this month to help the homeless in the Detroit area.
What are some of your favorite sports radio moments, if you have them? I will never forget Ernie announcing that we'd just won the pennant in 1968, and he said, "Let's listen to the bedlam here at Tiger Stadium!" and then he and Ray Lane just sat back and let the crowd go wild.
I have so many memories of listening to Tiger games when I was a kid, and all of them involve Harwell's warm, mellow voice. A true Southern gentleman with an evocative turn of phrase, he made every game seem both important and yet still fun, blending statistics, play-by-play, and anecdotes with little things like, "And a youngster from Sanilac, Michigan caught that foul ball". I always wondered how he could possibly know.
Mitch Albom has an article about how Ernie's facing this, with information about a charity book launch later this month to help the homeless in the Detroit area.
What are some of your favorite sports radio moments, if you have them? I will never forget Ernie announcing that we'd just won the pennant in 1968, and he said, "Let's listen to the bedlam here at Tiger Stadium!" and then he and Ray Lane just sat back and let the crowd go wild.
