~ Ernie Harwell's Hall of fame induction speech. 1981.
Thanks for the memories Mr. Harwell.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
God Bless Ernie Harwell
~ Ernie Harwell's Hall of fame induction speech. 1981.
Thanks for the memories Mr. Harwell.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
10 comments:
For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
Bless you Ernie.
I mostly watch the Tigers on TV but I will admit it was a treat to hear the games on the radio. Sadly, the radio greats are going by the wayside.
He will be missed.
GoBlueBob, That's one of my favorite Ernie memories. It's from the bible (Song of Solomon 2: 11-12).
Jeff.. I was hoping I was not alone and that someone out there would understand my reference. I would always mark my calendar for the first spring training game and try to listen to him during the pregame to hear him read this. It was only a once a year event but I always looked forward to it. I missed it many times but heard it enough that I have good memories. I was also listening to Drew and Mike on Detroit radio this morning playing some old interviews with Ernie and I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. He really had a sense of humor and knowledge of the game and it's star players. There will never be another like him in Detroit.
if you haven't seen it already, EDSBS has unearthed & posted a recording of Harwell's radio call of a scoring series from a 1940s Yale-Army football game.
it's worth the minute listen- it didn't matter the sport- he knew how to make you see the game w/ words.
Sadly making you see the game with words is becoming a lost art with TV. Although, I do enjoy listening to the radio sometimes for games because you get less assinine comments.
it's a very different world than the one in which i grew up. i didn't follow sports on the radio out of choice, but neccessity. the ncaa only allowed 2 televised games a week (and no team could be on more than 3 times in 2 years). the NFL televised all their games, but only one locally, one nationally (& then MNF). and MLB showed very few games at all.
radio was the only consistent broadcast, and it's where the best, most talented announcers went to work. you came to identify not just w/ your team, but the broadcast crew who were a part of EVERY game. their voice, along w/ their viewpoints & prejudices, were as much a part of the team as the players.
a few months ago while watching the Olympics, my 16 yr old son asked me about an off hand reference to ABC's "Wide World of Sports" (ski jumping/"agony of defeat"), which led into a discussion of the world before highlights or Sportscenter. he had a hard time understanding how i would watch horse racing & Alcapulco cliff diving in order to not miss the end of a car race. or how the sports broadcast on the evening news consisted of a guy in a bad sport coat, smoking a Winston, reading off scores against a blank back drop. or why it was so important to watch the MNF halftime highlight show if you didn't want to wait until Saturday to see it all on "This Week in Pro Football".
i love the new world of 24/7 football, unlimited highlights/replays, and god bless the guy who came up w/ the projected first down yard line but i also recognize in the progress we have lost something special that we won't get back.
listening to the brief clip of Harwell call the Yale - Army game reminded me both of how much better things are when you can see them, but still how good sports over the radio, w/ the right guy calling the game, could be.
"Phone call for SiC. It's Norman Rockwell from an unknown phone booth...collect."
while i'm seldom too sentimental, baseball is very nostalgic and Ernie's death gave me pause to reflect.
and i happen to LIKE Norman Rockwell.
Yeah Baseball with the quaint notion that the regular season should mean something and only having four teams per League in the playoffs. I love that format and despite some of the complaints there are still always races in September for the playoff spots. Imagine if Baseball had the hockey or basketball playoff rules, there wouldn't need to be the playoff game between the Tigers and the Indians. I guess my only complaint is that when you're the third team in a strong division, you sit home while a team in a weaker division goes to the playoffs because they won their division. But thems the rules.
Post a Comment