Ernie Harwell
From SoSH
William Earnest Harwell (b. January 25, 1918) was the long-tenured broadcaster of the Detroit Tigers. He spent 55 years as a broadcaster, 42 of them in Detroit.
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Broadcasting Biography
Harwell was born in Washington, Georgia and attended Emory University. He got his start in print journalism, working as a copy editor and sportswriter for the Atlanta Constitution, as well as working for The Sporting News as a regional correspondent. His broadcasting career began in 1943 with the Atlanta Crackers. After four years in the military, in 1948, Harwell was traded by the Crackers to the Brooklyn Dodgers for catcher Cliff Dapper, making him the only broadcaster ever traded for a player. Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey wanted Harwell to subtitute for Red Barber, who was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer.
Harwell stayed with the Dodgers through the 1949 season. He worked for the New York Giants from 1950 through 1953 (including the 1951 playoff game between the Dodgers and Giants, which he did for NBC while Russ Hodges was on the radio) and the Baltimore Orioles from 1954 to 1959. Harwell landed his longtime Detroit gig in 1960 as a replacement for Van Patrick, where he stayed through the 1991 season. In 1992, he worked for the California Angels part-time; in 1993, public outcry forced the Tigers to re-instate Harwell on the radio, where he would typically call three to five innings. He worked on television from 1994 to 1998 and resumed full-time radio duties in 1999. He retired at the end of the 2002 season.
In 55 seasons, Harwell called the 1958 and 1961 All-Star Games, the 1963 and 1968 World Series (all for NBC Radio), several Championship and Division Series for CBS and ESPN Radio, and the CBS Radio Game of the Week from 1992 to 1997. He also called the 1984 World Series for the Tigers' radio station, WJR.
Harwell received the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980. He was elected to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1989, the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Radio Hall of Fame in 1998.
Notable Calls
Denny McLain's 30th Victory
In 1968, "The Year of the Pitcher," Tigers pitcher Denny McLain became the first (and so far, last) pitcher to win 30 games in a single season since Dizzy Dean in 1934.
" Here's the set by Segui, the pitch...swung on, a drive to left! That'll be the ball game! It's over the head of Gosger! McLain wins his thirtieth, here comes Stanley, he'll score...Willie Horton hits a single and the ball game is over, and the Tigers win it 5-4...Denny McLain is one of the first out of the dugout, racing out, and Horton is mobbed as the Tigers come from behind, and McLain has his thirtieth victory of the 1968 season!"
1968 American League Pennant
The Tigers won the pennant on September 17, 1968 and went on to face the St. Louis Cardinals in that year's World Series. Harwell was behind the microphone to call the action.
"This big crowd here ready to break loose. Three men on, two men out. Game tied, 1-1, in the ninth inning. McDaniel checking his sign with Jake Gibbs. The tall right-hander ready to go to work again, and the windup, and the pitch...He swings, a line shot, base hit, right field, the Tigers win it! Here comes Kaline to score and it's all over! Don Wert singles, the Tigers mob Don, Kaline has scored...The fans are streaming on the field...And the Tigers have won their first pennant since nineteen hundred and forty-five! Let's listen to the bedlam here at Tiger Stadium!"
Game 1 of the 1968 World Series
In this game, Bob Gibson broke Sandy Koufax's record for most strikeouts in a single World Series game.
"Gibson has tied the record of Sandy Koufax, 15 strikeouts in a single World Series game. Trying for number 16 right now against Cash to break the record. He takes his set position, he delivers, here's the pitch...Swing and a miss, he did it!"
Game 5 of the 1984 World Series
"Here comes Herndon, he's got it! And the Tigers are the champions of 1984!"
September 29, 2002
The Tigers were shut out the day Harwell called his final game.
"Peña digging in, waiting, here's the set, the pitch...Swing and a miss! And the Toronto Blue Jays win it, the final game of 2002. The final score: the Blue Jays 1, and the Tigers nothing."
Trivia
- Harwell wrote popular music, with a total of 66 songs recorded, the first being "Upside Down" by Homer and Jethroe. In a May 2005 article in the Detroit Free Press, Harwell cracked, "Needless to say, I have more no-hitters than Nolan Ryan."
Further Reading
- Ernie Harwell's biography at the Baseball Hall of Fame website
- Ernie Harwell - Courtesy of Wikipedia
