For more than six decades, Ernie Harwell delighted radio listeners and television viewers with his homespun charm, simple powers of observation and becalming tone. While he covered everything from the NFL to the Masters, Ernie's name is synonymous with Detroit Tigers baseball. Countless fans throughout the Motor City—where he broadcast his first game in 1960—grew up on his signature "Lonnnng Gone" home run call. His voice evoked vivid memories of Tiger heroes from Kaline and Cash to Trammell and Whitaker.

Had Ernie had his way, one of baseball's signature voices might never have reached the airwaves. Born on January 25, 1918 in Washington, Georgia, the legendary play-by-play man first dreamed of being a sportswriter. Though he eventually settled in behind the microphone, Ernie also found time to pen more than 50 songs—recorded by artists such as Mitch Ryder, B. J. Thomas, and Barbara Lewis.

The 1981 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Awards by the Baseball Hall of Fame for broadcasting excellence, Ernie is also a member of the National Sportscasters Hall of Fame, the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and the Radio Hall of Fame. Sadly, on May 4, 2010, he died after a months-long battle with cancer. Several years earlier, the venerable broadcaster talked to contributing editor Mike May about his life and times in sports.

Ernie Harwell

What was it like growing up in the South in the ’30s?

I was born in Washington, Georgia, which is about 120 miles east of Atlanta. My family moved to Atlanta when I was about four. I lived there until 1948. In my early years, my dad was a great baseball fan. He inculcated in me a love of baseball and other sports. My father had Multiple Sclerosis, and didn't work after he was about 32. He lived to be 72.

My mom supported the family by making cakes and sandwiches. I helped out by selling newspapers. I had a paper route, and also sold things like magazines and Christmas cards.

I grew up as a real sports fan. I was a bat boy for the Atlanta Crackers, or sometimes for the visiting team. When I was in high school, I wrote to The Sporting News, and suggested that I should be the Atlanta correspondent. The editor wrote back and gave me the job. He didn't t know that I was only 16 at the time. Then I got a job with The Atlanta Constitution. I worked there six years, while I was in high school and college.

My real ambition was to be a sportswriter. When I got out of Emory University, there weren’t any jobs open on the paper, so I opted for radio. I took an audition at WSB in 1940., and got lucky and won it. They gave me a job in May, and I’ve been in radio or TV ever since, except for four years in the United States Marine Corps. So, I’ve been in it a long time. It’s been a great life for me. God blessed me with some talent and great health, and I’ve been very fortunate.

Most people associate you with the Tigers, but you’ve been affiliated with many other clubs. Tell us about the teams you’ve called games for over the years.

Well, it started when I came back from the Marines. I became the permanent announcer for the Atlanta Crackers, which was my old hometown team. I thought that was just great. I worked there in 1946 and 1947. In 1948, Red Barber became ill, and Branch Rickey, his boss, contacted my boss, Earl Mann. He wanted me to replace Red with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Mr. Mann said he had me under contract. He told Mr. Rickey, “If you really want him, I’ll make a trade. You send me your catcher, Cliff Apper, from Montreal and I’ll send you Ernie.” So, to get to the big leagues, I was traded for a minor-league catcher.

I stayed with the Dodgers for two years. This was at the height of the “boys of summer”—Jackie Robinson and all the great players. Jackie won the National League MVP in 1949, my second year there, and the Dodgers won the pennant. I got a pretty good offer from the New York Giants, so I moved over there and worked for four years with Russ Hodges. I was there when Willie Mays broke in and when Bobby Thomson hit his famous home run. I was on NBC-TV, but the famous call you hear was Russ Hodges on the radio. Nobody recorded TV back then, so only Mrs. Harwell and I know I was on that afternoon. I just said, “It’s gone.” It was a great thrill for me.

Then, in 1954, I went to Baltimore Orioles, when they came into the American League. That was interesting, because I was starting on the bottom floor with a new team. Everyone was excited about having a big-league franchise in Baltimore. They didn't t have much of a team, but the people there were great.

Detroit hired me in 1960, after the 1959 season.

You’ve visited just about every ballpark in the majors. What are your favorites, both as a broadcaster and a spectator?

I think that the old Tiger Stadium is my favorite because I spent so much time there. You were right down close to the players, where you could see them sweat and hear them cuss. Fenway Park, I think, is everybody’s favorite.

Of the newer ones, I really love the stadiums that have the ambience of the old-fashioned ballparks, plus all the modern conveniences—Camden Yards, Coors Field, Jacobs Field, and the Ballpark in Arlington. They’re all really great. They give the fans a terrific time at the “old ballpark.”

Speaking of the new generation of stadiums, what are your thoughts on them?

I like the new stadiums. The retro look is great. They have been designed to bring the fans closer to the action. Bringing the grandstands closer to the diamonds has made baseball more fan-friendly. The new stadiums are well-built, in downtown locations, and have great amenities. Camden Yards seems to be the general model which the others have followed—though that ballpark is too favorable to the hitters! My personal favorite is Safeco Field in Seattle. It’s a neat place because of the ability to cover the field in case of inclement weather. I haven’t seen the stadiums in Pittsburgh or Houston, though I’d like to see them one day.

You mentioned that you saw Bobby Thomson’s historic home run in 1951. Talk about some other great moments that you’ve witnessed.

I was there when Willie Mays broke into baseball. That was sort of a kick for me because I didn't t feel that it took a genius to know that this guy was going to be a pretty good ball player. I think he’s the best player that I’ve ever seen as a broadcaster.

One of my favorite calls was in Game 7 of the 1968 World Series. There was no score in the top of the 7th inning and the Tigers were playing the Cardinals in Busch Stadium. Bob Gibson was pitching for St.Louis and Mickey Lolich for Detroit. Willie Horton and Norm Cash were on with two outs, and Jim Northrup hit a two-run, two-out triple to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. They went on to win the game, 4-1, and the World Series title.

The 1984 World Series was great when the Tigers beat San Diego. In the final game, Kirk Gibson hit a couple of home runs.

I announced all the playoffs for CBS beginning in 1976. Every time there was a big post-season game, I was there. I also did the one-game playoff in 1978 between the Yankees and Red Sox, when Bucky Dent hit the home run off Mike Torrez. That was a big thrill.

Some of the other playoff games I’ve done were terrific. One of the more recent ones was when Seattle won on a hit to rightfield by Alex Rodriguez that scored Ken Griffey with the winning run. Of course, every time you go to the ballpark, it’s a big thrill.

How would you rank moments like Denny McClain’s 31-win season and Al Kaline’s 3,000th hit?

Those were great—though Kaline’s was more of an individual moment that didn’t really affect a pennant race.

Denny’s 30th victory was sort of a spectacle at Tiger Stadium. He beat the Oakland A’s.

Kaline got his 3,000th hit in his hometown of Baltimore, which was pretty interesting. It was a double down the rightfield line. Both were big thrills for me. I enjoyed seeing those guys perform because they’re the very best in the world.

Let’s focus a little bit on technology for a moment. How has technology affected your profession, especially in radio?

I don’t think that radio has really changed a whole lot. The basics are still there. You’ve got a microphone, an engineer, and a voice.

Television, on the other hand, has made rapid strides. When I started in TV, we didn’t have cable from coast to coast. If you called a game in New York, they had to ship it to the West Coast. In fact, the series I did in 1951 was the first sports series ever telecast coast to coast. We were pretty basic back then. We had a couple of cameras and one guy in the booth with us. Now, they have these big trucks and 200 people working for you, plus all the visuals that they use and everything else.

You’ve worked with some great partners. Run down the list for us.

I started with Red Barber, who’s in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Connie Desmond, who was a great announcer. Connie and really good to me in Brooklyn. When I went to the Giants, there were only two of us there, Russ Hodges, who also made the Hall of Fame, and me. We were partners for four years. In Baltimore, my first partner was Howie Williams, then Chuck Thompson, who came along later. Chuck’s a Hall of Famer, too. Next I had a fellow named Larry Ray, who came in from Kansas City. There was also Herb Carneal, another Hall of Famer.

When I went to Detroit, my first partner was George Kell, the Hall of Fame third baseman. We did radio and TV together. Bob Scheffing, the old manager, and I worked one year together. Then Bob got out of it. Gene Osborn and Ray Lane were two others who were great partners.

The fellow who worked with me the longest and had a terrific voice, a great technique, and was a very conscientious worker was Paul Carey. He teamed with me 18 years, and we had a great association.

All these guys, you work with them and you work as a team. It’s not Ernie Harwell—it’s Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey, for instance. You’re never any better than the guy working with you. So, you’re lucky when you have a good partner.

Of today’s broadcasters, who are your favorites?

There are so many good ones out there that it’s difficult to answer that question. Veterans like Vin Scully and John Miller are still doing a great job, as is my old buddy Herb Carneal, a radio broadcaster with the Minnesota Twins. So many of today’s broadcasters are only heard or seen on a regional basis. Unfortunately, I don’t get a chance to hear or see them.

You’ve done other sports besides baseball, including golf. Have you enjoyed that work?

My golf work was pretty much restricted to the Masters. My first year with WSB was 1940, and the next year the station sent me down to Augusta. I did interviews and reports. At the time, we were the largest station covering The Masters.

The next year, NBC got the rights, and used Bill Stern. He had a fellow named Bob Stanton from the network in New York who worked with him. He was on one nine and I was on the other nine. It was very primitive. We had an engineer with a bicycle with a basket. He put an antenna in the basket and rolled the bicycle up and down the hills.

We would get a signal from Stern, then we’d call in and say something like, “I’m Ernie Harwell at the fourth hole, and Lawson Little, Ralph Guldahl, and Bobby Jones are coming on.” We’d describe the action and send it back to Stern at the tower. I went into the Marines for four years, and when I came back I worked The Masters in 1946 with Stern.

You got to know Bobby Jones in your earlier days while you were living in Atlanta. What was your relationship with him?

I knew Bobby because we were both in Atlanta. O.B. Keeler was a good friend of mine. He and Bobby were very close. If you knew O.B., you knew Bobby. I think Bobby was the finest gentleman I ever met in sports. He was so self-effacing, so modest, and yet had great talent and was a fellow that everybody liked. He was down to earth, but he had a dignity and class about him that few people are ever able to achieve.

He was willing to do anything. My first year with WSB doing the Masters, we went on the air from Augusta stationed out at the tower. That was only place to do the show, and it was about 200 to 300 yards from the clubhouse. It was raining real hard, and Jones came out and walked through the rain with me. He walked up the tower, which wasn't t an easy feat, and stood there in the rain and did an interview. He wouldn’t talk about himself at all. He wanted to talk about the other golfers who were playing. He was a terrific guy.
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Any downside to a career like yours. It does take you away from home a lot, especially during the summer, right?

That’s the downside. But my wife is so adaptable, and I was in this business before we married. We’ve been married for 56 years, so she was just great about understanding that I was going to be on the road. We have a saying on the road: Never call home, because there will be a crisis. She takes care of everything when I’m away. She’s been so supportive. I owe a great deal to her.

Outside of that, I really don t think there are many downsides. I never objected to travel like most people do. That’s what really makes most announcers retire. They don t like to travel. They don t like the idea of being on the road. But I have people I see on the road. I just going to look at it this way—somebody’s paying me to stay at a nice hotel, eat at a good restaurant and go to a ball game. I’m not going to gripe about it; I’m going to enjoy it! I always have.

Now that you're retired, what do you do to keep busy?

My biggest challenge is to lift my feet when my wife runs the vacuum cleaner near my foot rest! In all seriousness, I’m a spokesman for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Michigan. I have a 10-year contract with them and an option for 10 more years, so I need to live to 106 to fulfill my total contract. I also write a column for the Blue Cross newsletter, and a column for the Detroit Free Press for 27 weeks of the year. I also appear on 20 promotional vignettes which are produced by Fox Detroit. I do keep rather busy.

Lastly, you've probably been asked this thousands of times: Where does your great voice come from?

Well, I don’t know that I’ve got a great voice, but whatever I’ve got, God gave it to me. I’ve never really cultivated it too much. I took a few singing lessons when I first started out at WSB. The station had an old Russian fiddle player in the orchestra who taught the announcers singing and breathing and things like that. Maybe that helped me a little bit. I’ve just been fortunate to have the throat that God gave me and I’ve tried to take care of it. I never wanted to be absent, because it’s just not good to be away from the microphone.