Ernie Harwell
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William Earnest "Ernie" Harwell (born January 25, 1918 in Washington, Georgia, USA) is a former Major League Baseball play-by-play announcer. For 55 years, 42 of them with the Detroit Tigers, Harwell called balls, strikes, and home runs over the radio.
Biography
After graduating from Emory University, Ernie Harwell began his career as a copy editor and sportswriter for the Atlanta Constitution and as a regional correspondent for The Sporting News. In 1943, he began announcing games for the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association, after which he served four years in the Marines. In 1948, Harwell became the only announcer in baseball history to be traded for a player when the Brooklyn Dodgers' General Manager, Branch Rickey, traded catcher Cliff Dapper to the Crackers in exchange for breaking Harwell's broadcasting contract.Harwell was also play-by-play man for the New York Giants in the early 1950s, calling Bobby Thomson's "shot heard 'round the world" in the 1951 National League pennant playoff game on national television, then for the Baltimore Orioles in the late 1950s. Early in his career, he also broadcast football and golf events.
In 1960, Harwell became the "voice" of the Tigers, replacing veteran broadcaster Van Patrick. He was known for his low-key delivery, southern accent, and conversational style, which included:
- Pausing periodically with the game action, allowing listeners to hear the sounds of the stadium.
- Frequently referring to the location of Tiger Stadium – the corner of Michigan and Trumbull.
- Following up foul balls into the crowd with, "That one was caught by a fan from (insert name of local city or town)."
- After a double play, "It's two for the price of one for the Tigers."
- Exclaiming on a called third strike, "He stood there like the house by the side of the road and watched it go by."
- Describing a home run, "That ball is looooong gone!"
- Beginning the first spring training broadcast of each season with a reading from Song of Solomon 2:12: "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."
- Using the phrase "And the bases are loaded with Tigers" when Detroit had runners on all bases.
- Exclaiming "The Tigers need instant runs" when Detroit had fallen behind by more than two or three runs.
Nationally, Harwell broadcast two All-Star Games (1959, 1961) and two World Series (1963, 1968) for NBC Radio, numerous American League postseason series for CBS Radio, and the CBS Radio Game of the Week from 1992 to 1997. He also called the 1984 World Series for the Tigers and WJR.
Awards and non-broadcast activities
Harwell was elected to the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 1989, the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Radio Hall of Fame in 1998, and was honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981 as the fifth broadcaster to receive its Ford C. Frick Award, among many other honors.
Harwell's 1955 essay "The Game for All America", originally published in The Sporting News and reprinted numerous times, is considered a classic of baseball literature. He has also authored several books, and pens an occasional column for the Detroit Free Press.
Ernie also wrote popular music. His first recorded song was "Upside Down" on the Something Stupid album by Homer and Jethro in the mid-1960s. In the liner notes of the album, it says: "Detroit Tiger baseball announcer wrote this one, and we think it's a fine observation of the world today, as seen from the press box at Tiger Stadium. We were up there with Ernie one day and from there the world looks upside down. In fact, the Mets were on top in the National League." All told, 66 songs written by Ernie Harwell have been recorded by various artists. "Needless to say, I have more no-hitters than Nolan Ryan." --Ernie Harwell in article published May 31, 2005 in the Detroit Free Press
Harwell made a cameo appearance in the 1994 film Cobb. His voice can be briefly heard in the films Paper Lion (1968) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and in the TV movie The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2004).
In 2004, the Detroit Public Library dedicated a room to Ernie Harwell and his wife, Lulu, which will house Harwell's collection of baseball memorabilia valued at over two million dollars.
Books by Ernie Harwell
- Tuned to Baseball (South Bend, Ind.: Diamond Communications, 1985).
- Ernie Harwell's Diamond Gems, edited by Geoff Upward (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Momentum, 1991).
- The Babe Signed My Shoe: Baseball As It Was – And Will Always Be, edited by Geoff Upward (South Bend, Ind.: Diamond Communications, 1994).
- Ernie Harwell: My 60 Years in Baseball, with Tom Keegan (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2002).
External links
- [Baseball Hall of Fame - Frick Award recipient]
- [Radio Hall of Fame]
- [Baseball Bids Farewell to Voice of the Tigers]
- [Harwells to receive honor from library]
- [Detroit News career article]
- [Salon.com tribute]
- [NPR Feature]
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