Ernie Harwell Will Be Remembered by Detroit Tiger Fans

Ernie Harwell was a sports announcer for 55 years, 42 of them for the Detroit Tigers¹. The voice of the Detroit Tigers passed away May 4, 2010 and will be missed by baseball fans everywhere. Ernie Harwell was born in 1918, just before commercial radio, his future career was invented. Radio broadcasts did not begin until the 1920's. Ernie Harwell was literally older than radio itself. To Detroit Tigers fans, Ernie Harwell was the voice of baseball.

Ernie Harwell announced more than 8,300 major league games, starting with the Brooklyn Dodgers and continuing with the New York Giants and the Baltimore Oriels before joining the Detroit Tigers. He missed two games in his Detroit Tigers Career, 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 1989^2.

Ernie Harwell wrote for the Sporting News before becoming an announcer and had other talents such as songwriting and inventing. He served 4 years in the Marines during World War II. Ernie Harwell returned to writing later in life and was the author of 8 publications:

Turned To Baseball (1985)

Ernie Harwell's Diamond Gems (1993)

The Babe Signed My Shoe: Baseball As It Was - And Will Always Be (1995)

Stories From My Baseball Life (2001)

Ernie Harwell: My 60 Years in Baseball (2002)

Life After Baseball (2004)

Ernie Harwell's Audio Scrapbook (2006)

Breaking 90 (2007)

In his books, Ernie recounts his childhood and tells of meeting Babe Ruth. He had no paper to get an autograph, so Babe Ruth signed his shoe. This episode at age 12 led to a book title many years later. Ernie Harwell's 2006 audio scrapbook includes an interview he did with Connie Mack in 1940. Connie Mack was born during the Civil War. Ernie Harwell truly had a link with the entire history of baseball.

The Detroit Public Library's Ernie Harwell Sports Collection is second only to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York^3. Ernie Harwell and his wife Lulu provided the Detroit Public Library with a collection of books, scorecards, media guides, baseball cards, programs and other materials pertaining to sports history. The Ernie Harwell Sports Collection is housed in part at the main branch of the Detroit Public Library and some material is available online .

Ernie Harwell will be remembered in our hearts as the voice of the Detroit Tigers and legend in Baseball history.

¹ MLB.com

² Sporting News

³ Detroit Public Library