Ernie Harwell: My 60 Years in Baseball

by Tom Keegan

Book Overview

For many fans, their lifetime of experience with the Detroit Tigers ensured them that when their team roared, it would be Ernie Harwell's smooth southern voice that would be heard above the din. After 42 years as the "Voice of the Detroit Tigers," the 2002 retirement of Harwell signaled the end of an era. This profile on the famed broadcaster provides the lesser-known details on the background of a Detroit institution. Known for his voice and talent...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1572437170
• ISBN13: 9781572437173
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Triumph Books (IL)
• Length: 289 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A gift

Ernie Harwell has the ability to articulate his thoughts and possesses a vast reservoir of anecdotes and observations based on his lengthy career. The combination made this into one of the more enjoyable baseball books I've read in recent years.

A home run

As a young boy growing up in a Detroit suburb, I often fell asleep at night with a transistor radio and an earphone, listening to Ernie Harwell and George Kell broadcasting Tigers' games. I've been a fan since. This book brought back a lot of those memories. It was well written and a fitting tribute to a man who has meant so much to the game. Well done.

This Little Light of Mine

Ernie Harwell's broadcasting career has covered an incredible amount of baseball history dating back to the days of Red Barber with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Bobby Thompson's home run on 10/3/'51, the birth of the Baltimore Orioles, and over four decades with the Detroit Tigers. Harwell came to the Tigers in 1960 as a replacement for Van Patrick who I grew up listening to as a Tigers' announcer. Author Tom Keegan begins the book with the controversial firing of Harwell and who was to blame for the fiasco. However, as Ernie says, "It doesn't matter. All that matters is everyone is forgiven." That comment is typical of the Christian Harwell. Ernie has the gift of making anyone he talks to feel as though they are important and his feelings are genuine. As Ernie says, God has blessed him with good health, and he has done what he can to take care of himself physically to show that age can be just a number. Ernie Harwell is not only a great ambassador for baseball, but also for everyone in how to treat their fellow human beings. The book is easy reading and is of value to those interested in baseball history and to those who want to meet a man we all can learn from regarding human relations.

He'll Be Missed

The first chapter takes the reader back to the unjustified firing of a beloved announcer. With each turn of the page, I grew angrier at the blatant age discrimination perpetrated by the morons who ousted Ernie Harwell. And then, in the ensuing chapters, I got to know the man through the eyes of others and grew even more livid that someone so universally respectedand loved would be kicked to the curb. Then as I read on and got to know the man's peaceful, positive attitude, my fury vanished. If he didn't let the shabby treatment eat him up, why should I get worked up over it? This man has a great life, he knows it, and relishes every second of it. The book justifies the man. It's a revealing look into hisbackground, his soul, his mind, his spirit and it's written in beautiful, peaceful prose that matches the subject's spirit. I would recommend this book for children, moms and dads, and seniors alike. -- Debbie Ferrell, Rochester, N.Y.

A Must Read!

A lifelong Tigers fan, I ordered this book and when it arrived, I intended on reading one or two chapters before going to see a movie with friends. It hooked me so quickly I canceled my plans and didn't get to bed (2 a.m.) until I finished it. I got to work the next day and the woman who sits three partitions down from me and had bags under her eyes told me she was up all night reading it too! We talked about how neither one of us could put it down and we shared a good laugh over that. I always knew Ernie Harwell was a great guy. What I didn't know much about was his childhood and his years as an announcer before he joined the Tigers. He's had such a fascinating life. He's touched so many lives and I found it most interesting to hear what Denny McLain had to say about him. The author devoted a whole chapter to a three-hour visit with McLain in prison and it was quite a fascinating chapter. His is an inspirational story of a man who conquered a speech impediment as a youth and age discrimation so many decades later. I found this to be a very uplifting biography of a great man.