So many stories. So many people touched by the warmth and grace of Ernie Harwell. He was the featured speaker at Mary's annual meeting 3 years ago. He mingled and spoke to everyone at the cocktail reception before dinner and then left the room spellbound as he talked baseball for almost an hour. He was 90 at the time and had the energy of a 40 yr. old. Ernie may be "Long Gone" but he'll be long remembered. Thousands will travel to Comerica Park to pay their respects. I hope to have time to go.
Didn't know a lot about Ernie since he was the Tigers guy for so long, but I read up on him on wikipedia found out he's the only broadcaster to have been traded for a player. The Dodgers traded somebody to his team in return for releasing him to come do the Dodger broadcasts, went on to be one of 5 guys who called Bobby Thompsons HR, yes 5 guys. He had a long and productive career, a full life indeed.
This morning I heard the replay of the Tigers game announcers informing the listeners that Ernie had passed away. They both were choked up and had trouble getting the words out for several seconds.
Here's a pretty tough guy Jim Leyland talking about Ernie http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100505&content_id=9807128&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
Another Whiz Kid went down. Robin Roberts. He wasn't a whiz kid anymore when I started following baseball pretty closely around 1957, but he and Richie Ashburn were still stars.
".....and that foul ball was caught by a gentleman from Toledo...." ".....he stood there like a house by the side of the road.....call strike three" "......and.....that ball is long gone....." "....the bases are loaded with Tigers...." Baseball....and most especially Detroit.... will miss you Ernie.