Ernie
“Baseball is a ballet without music.”
Recently retired Ernie Harwell, the long-beloved baseball broadcaster for the Detroit Tigers, is a columnist and a professional writer of both books and magazines, a lyricist and composer of a number of published songs, a philosopher, a former United States Marine, a member of the baseball Hall of Fame, but, most of all, he is “Mr. Detroit Baseball”, one of the best ever salesman for the game of baseball.
William Ernest Harwell was born on January 25, 1918 in Washington, Georgia. Ernie’s passion for baseball began at an early age when the family moved to Atlanta, the home of the minor league Crackers. One of those childhood moments that live forever occurred in March 1930 when the New York Yankees and Babe Ruth came to town on their way north after spring training. The 12-year-old Ernie was at the game, and somehow made it to the box seats where he yelled to Ruth asking for an autograph. With no paper in sight the youngster offered his tennis shoe for the signature. Ruth signed the shoe that was used until both footwear and the famous autograph eventually disappeared.
As a high school student Harwell became the Atlanta correspondent for The Sporting News at age 16 in 1934, a sports writer for The Atlanta Constitution at 18, and regularly sold articles to The Saturday Evening Post, Reader’s Digest, Collier’s, and Esquire. After four years in the US Marines, 1942-1946, Ernie moved behind the mike to do play-by-play for the Atlanta Triple A minor league Atlanta Crackers for two years. After hearing Ernie call a Crackers game, Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey wanted the Atlanta announcer to join Vin Scully in the Dodgers broadcasting booth. In order to get Harwell in his camp Rickey first had to complete a most unusual trade.
The voice of the minor league Crackers was swapped to the major league Brooklyn Dodgers for minor leaguer catcher, Cliff Dapper, the first and only time a broadcaster has ever been traded for a player. Dapper hit .471 during his eight big league games with the Dodgers in 1942 that is included in his 24 years in baseball as player, coach, and manager. Cliff later got into the avocado market where he prospered.
Following two years with Brooklyn, Ernie moved his calm, soothing, and intelligent baseball voice to the New York Giants and the Baltimore Orioles before finding his niche in Detroit in 1960. After 30 years the Georgian native had become a part of the Detroit baseball team as was the Big English “D” or a black and yellow tiger. But in 1991 the fans were outraged when team president Bo Schembechler and then owner Tom Monagham notified Harwell that 1991 would be his final year behind the mike.
After a one-year hiatus Ernie returned to the Tiger booth, and now Michigan baseball fans were again able to settle back and listen to their favorite announcer who became as part of Detroit as the Bob-Lo boats, J. L. Hudson’s, and Sander’s hot fudge sundaes. .
At the age of 84 and after 55 years of play-by-play Ernie Harwell turned off his microphone for the last time after a 1-0 loss to the Blue Jays on September 29, 2002 in Toronto. His last call at Comerica Park was on September 22 before a 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees, and in a tribute to the humble Harwell the press box will be named the Ernie Harwell Media Center. During that final home game a message from Lulu, his wife of 61 years, appeared on the scoreboard saying, “Hurry up and get home, Ernie.”
The new retiree has created some “Harwellian” traditions during his 55 years including his black beret, the home run call of “it’s lo-o-o-ong go-o-o-one”, and the often fate of foul balls that find their way into the stands. He may inform you that the ball was caught by a little old lady from the small town of Flat Rock, or by a youngster from nearby Dearborn Heights, or by a teenage girl down from upstate Gladwin. Ernie has puzzled many listeners who have asked how he quickly knows where those amateur ballplayers in the seats come from? The reader will have to figure that out, but this may help. A baseball game moves forward at a relaxed pace, and one way to keep the 164 games alive and vibrant is by imagination and ingenuity. Ernie created those foul ball hometowns while others behind the microphone have read poetry and sang to their listeners.
Ernie is never boring, wants his listeners to know the score and the count, and his columns, books, and radio delivery can be read and heard without the need of a dictionary. Harwell was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame on August 2, 1981, and now has his own life-size statue at Comerica Park.
Harwell has beautifully described baseball with his essay called “A Game for All America”. Ernie said that he just jotted a few good things about baseball on the back of an envelope, and added to it from time to time. Here is but a small excerpt from his 1955 piece on baseball:
Baseball is President Eisenhower tossing out the first ball of the season; and a pudgy schoolboy playing catch with his dad…It’s America, this baseball…Dreams lost somewhere between boy and man…
Baseball is continuity. Pitch to pitch. Inning to inning. Game to game. Series to series. Season to season. Arguments, Casey at the Bat, old cigarette cards, photographs, Take Me Out to the Ball Game – all of them are baseball…This is a game for America, this baseball!
Good luck, Ernie Harwell, and wish you and Lulu many years to enjoy together.