A Legend Who Taught Us Many Lessons

His voice could smooth the static on my little green RCA transistor radio.

Ernie Harwell sat down at the Detroit Tigers’ microphone just about the time I got interested in baseball. The guys and I used to listen to his calls of Tigers games on hot summer afternoons while we were playing pick-up games at the dusty sandlot near Memorial School, in Riverview.

I’d often fall asleep to his voice on summer nights, with my radio tucked under my pillow when, as Ernie used to say, the Tigers were “… on a west coast swing …”

While we all dreamed of being Al Kaline or Norm Cash, or Mickey Lolich, a couple of us – my friend Jeff and me – used to dream of being Ernie. With our little reel-to-reel tape recorders, we’d sit in my garage and “broadcast” imaginary games, complete with sound effects that we’d provide for each other.

We’d play the tapes back and convince ourselves that, despite our cracking adolescent voices – and our flat Midwest accents – we sounded “just like Ernie.”

To us, as kids, Ernie Harwell was more than the voice of the Detroit Tigers. He was an inspiration. Not just as a broadcaster, but as a human being. It was through Ernie that we first heard about Baseball Chapel and learned that many ballplayers had faith lives too. We saw him live a life of humility and service, putting his fame and his status as a celebrity to work for the betterment of the communities in which his listeners lived.

While for now, we’re saddened at his death; we all can – and should – take comfort in the fact that we, for so long, were blessed to have had “…the voice of Ernie Harwell heard in our land.”