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DETROIT -- The man who will forever be the voice of the Tigers is gone, and the baseball community is left silent in remembrance. Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell passed away Tuesday at age 92.
Harwell succumbed to cancer of the bile duct. Doctors diagnosed the condition as an aggressive form in August, and Harwell and his family decided against surgery at his age. He explained his situation with an extraordinary sense of peace, both to his friends in the community and to fans at Comerica Park when he made one last visit in September.
"I've got a great attitude. I just look forward to a new adventure," Harwell told the Detroit Free Press when he disclosed his illness. "God gives us so many adventures, and I've had some great ones. It's been a terrific life."
It was a new journey, Harwell said, and he was ready for it. Still, many who knew him weren't quite ready to say goodbye.
Everyone knew this day was coming, but it didn't make it any easier to handle.
"He's going to pass at some point," former Tigers great Alan Trammell said during the 1984 Tigers reunion in September, "but the memories are always there, like Tiger Stadium. And obviously, being around him for so many years, there's a lot of good memories for me, and for a lot of people here."
Born Jan. 25, 1918, in Washington, Ga., William Earnest Harwell grew up an aspiring sportswriter, working as a paperboy in Atlanta and as a batboy for the Minor League Atlanta Crackers. He was just 16 years old when a letter he sent to The Sporting News led to a freelance job as its Atlanta correspondent. He spent his high school and college years working on the desk at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
He was on his way to becoming a sportswriter, but as he explained later on, life would put him on an unexpected path soon after he graduated from nearby Emory University. With writing jobs in Atlanta hard to find, Harwell auditioned for WSB radio in 1940 and earned a job hosting a sports show. His persistence landed him one of baseball's most coveted interviews at the time when he won over the reclusive Hall of Famer Ty Cobb.
Soon after, he broke into play-by-play broadcasting with the Crackers, his start in what ultimately became his profession.
"I'm a failed newspaper man myself," he recalled earlier this year. "I wanted to be a sportswriter when I was younger, working on the [Atlanta] Constitution, doing everything that nobody else would do. Thought maybe I'd be the next Grantland Rice, but it didn't happen. God had another plan for me. Couldn't get a job on the paper, and I got into radio. Stuck with radio and television, and it stuck with me up until 2002."
Harwell honed his broadcasting style with the Crackers, where his conversational style and southern accent took on polish. But it took baseball's only trade involving a broadcaster to break him into the Major Leagues. The Crackers let Harwell out of his contract to join the Brooklyn Dodgers as a fill-in for Red Barber in 1948 in exchange for Minor League catcher Cliff Dapper.
Harwell would stick in the Majors for more than a half-century. He went from behind the microphone of the Dodgers to the Giants (1950-53) -- Vin Scully succeeded him with the Dodgers -- then to the Orioles (1954-59).
Among Harwell's feats, he broadcast Bobby Thomson's home run to win the 1951 National League pennant, better known as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," but his call of "It's gone!" ended up overshadowed by Russ Hodges' proclamation that the Giants won the pennant.
He was a household name in the business well before the Tigers hired him to replace Van Patrick in 1960. In Detroit, however, he found a home, on and off the field. Though he had better than four decades of broadcasting left in him, he was done moving.
Harwell spent 42 seasons broadcasting in Detroit, where his Georgia tones became part of the sound of Michigan summers. Through Harwell, fans came to know Tiger Stadium by its location on the corner of Michigan and Trumbull, recognized double plays as "two for the price of one," and home runs as "looong gone!" They still associate called third strikes with Harwell's phrase that the batter "stood there like a house by the side of the road."
Countless kids and more than a few adults wondered how Harwell knew the hometowns of so many fans who caught foul balls, whether Ypsilanti, or Sturgis, or whatever town Harwell wished to recognize.
The accolades deservedly followed over the years. He was honored with the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, earned induction to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1989, then the radio sports Hall of Fame in 1998. His songwriting skills, more of a side effort he enjoyed rather than a second career, led to more than 60 recordings by various performers.
To those who came in contact with him, whether longtime friends, colleagues, players or fortunate fans, his legacy as a broadcaster is matched by his legacy away from the microphone. He got to know many Tigers players over the years not only through his job, but through an active role with the Baseball Chapel.
"The thing that you remember," Trammmell said, "is what a special man he is, the way he treated you. That's not easy to do."
The way he treated his situation, too, touched many.
"This whole community loves Ernie Harwell, and they should," Jack Morris said. "He's lived a full life, a life of kindness, grace and honor and goodwill."
Even those who had never met him until recently, until his illness brought him back into the spotlight, were in awe. The grace and the gratitude with which he stood and faced his condition was one more example for many to admire.
"What a tremendous man," said shortstop Adam Everett, who had the chance to visit Harwell at his home.
As Harwell talked with fans one last time from behind home plate at Comerica Park on Sept. 16, standing tall with his hands politely behind him, he turned his fate into a storybook ending in a way only he could.
"In my almost 92 years on this Earth, the good Lord has blessed me with a great journey," Harwell told fans, "and the blessed part of that journey is that it's going to end here in the great state of Michigan. I deeply appreciate the people of Michigan. I love their grit. I love the way they face life. I love the family values they have. And you Tiger fans are the greatest fans of all."
Said Morris: "He doesn't want people to feel sorry for him. I've never been an outwardly spiritual kind of guy, but I believe. He's going to get there first, and I hope he saves us a seat."
Harwell is survived by Lulu, his wife of 68 years, sons Bill and Gray, daughters Julie and Carolyn, and numerous grandchildren.
More on this story from Yahoo Sports. Previous story comes from MLB.com
DETROIT (AP)—Longtime Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell, beloved by generations of fans who grew up listening to his rich voice, Southern cadence and quirky phrases on the radio, has died after a months-long battle with cancer. He was 92.
Tigers spokesman Brian Britten said the Tigers learned of Harwell’s death from his agent.
Harwell, who called Detroit Tigers games for four-plus decades and was acquired by the Brooklyn Dodgers for a catcher, announced in September that he had been diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the bile duct. Then 91, he took the news with characteristic poise, saying he planned to continue working on a book and other projects.
“Whatever happens, I’m ready to face it,” Harwell told The Associated Press on Sept. 4, 2009. “I have a great faith in God and Jesus.”
Shortly after Harwell’s announcement, the Tigers honored him during the third inning of a game against Kansas City, showing a video tribute and giving him a chance to address the crowd at Comerica Park.
“In my almost 92 years on this Earth, the good Lord has blessed me with a great journey,” Harwell said at a microphone behind home plate. “The blessed part of that journey is that it’s going to end here in the great state of Michigan.”
Harwell died Tuesday at his home in Novi, about 30 miles northwest of Detroit, according to the Detroit Free Press. The Tigers did not have additional details about his death.
Harwell spent 42 of his 55 years in broadcasting with the Tigers. He was their play-by-play radio voice from 1960-1991 and 1993-2002.
The team and its flagship radio station, WJR, allowed his contract to expire after the 1991 season in what became a public relations nightmare. Then-Tigers president Bo Schembechler, the former Michigan football coach, took the blame. WJR general manager Jim Long later took responsibility for the unpopular move.
When Mike Ilitch bought the franchise from Tom Monaghan, he put Harwell back in the booth in 1993. Harwell chose to retire after the 2002 season.
His big break came in unorthodox fashion.
Brooklyn Dodgers radio broadcaster Red Barber fell ill in 1948, and general manager Branch Rickey needed a replacement. After learning the Crackers needed a catcher, Rickey sent minor league catcher Cliff Dapper to Atlanta and Harwell joined the Dodgers.
Harwell said his most memorable game was the 1951 playoff between the Dodgers and New York Giants for the NL pennant, which Bobby Thomson won with a walk-off home run, but few if any people remember his recount of the “Shot Heard ‘Round The World?” at the Polo Grounds that day.
Russ Hodges’ exclamation on radio of “The Giants win the pennant!” became one of the most famous moments in sports broadcasting history. Harwell, meanwhile, was calling the first major sporting event televised coast-to-coast in the United States. His work that day has been largely forgotten.
“I just said, `It’s gone!’ and then the pictures took over,” he recalled.
By his own count, Harwell called more than 8,300 major league games, starting with the Dodgers and continuing with the Giants and Baltimore Orioles before joining the Tigers. He missed two games outside of the ’92 season: one for his brother’s funeral in 1968, the other when he was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame in 1989.
The Georgia native’s easygoing manner and love of baseball endeared him to generations of Tigers fans, enhancing the club’s finest moments and making its struggles more bearable.
Even casual fans could tick off Harwell catchphrases: “Looooooong gone!” for a home run; “He stood there like the house by the side of the road and watched that one go by” for a batter taking a called third strike; and “Two for the price of one!” for a double play.
Foul balls into the stands were “Caught by a man from (whatever town in the area that came to his mind).”
“I started that after I got to Detroit in 1961 or ’62, and it just happened by accident,” Harwell explained. “I said, `A guy from Grosse Pointe caught that foul ball,’ then the next ones were caught by a guy from Saginaw or a lady from Lansing.”
The Baseball Hall of Fame honored Harwell in 1981 with the Ford C. Frick Award, given annually to a broadcaster for major contributions to baseball.
Harwell tempered his with modesty. “I just want people to remember me as a guy who showed up for work and tried to do a good job,” Harwell told the AP weeks before he retired in 2002.
As Detroit struggled late in Harwell’s career—the Tigers had losing records in each of his final nine years in the booth—he became a reminder of better times. A life-sized statue of Harwell stands at the entrance to Comerica Park and its press box is called “The Ernie Harwell Media Center.”
Survivors include his wife of 68 years, Lulu, and four children.
