DETROIT — 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, died Tuesday at his home after a months-long battle with cancer. He was 92.
Harwell, a Hall of Fame announcer who called 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 said on Sept. 4, 2009. “I have a great faith in God and Jesus.”
Harwell’s body will lie in repose at Comerica Park on Thursday beginning at 7 a.m. and “until the last person who wishes to pay their respects” has done so, said his attorney and longtime friend, S. Gary Spicer.
“It might be an all-night vigil,” he said.
Shortly after Harwell’s announcement that he was ill, the Tigers honored him during 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 spent 42 of his 55 years in broadcasting with the Tigers. He was their play-by- play radio voice from 1960-91 and 1993-2002.
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 walkoff 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.
Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully began broadcasting Brooklyn Dodgers games in 1950, the season after Harwell left.
“Probably the best word, he was gentle. And it came across. He just cared for people, and he loved baseball. I mean, he loved it beyond just doing games,” Scully said.
