Got the Tigers By the Toe Tag

Or

He’s Long Gone

(An epitaphany shared by Mike B and Shawn)

Or

Morgan and McCarver Still Live, More Proof That There is No God

(Kudos to Mark questioning his faith)

Ernie Harwell, one of the last iconic voices of summer, regaling Michiganese baseball fans for more than 40 years, has died of cancer of the bile duct. By all accounts one of the great broadcasters of the greatest game, and a 1981 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, Harwell respected the pace of the sport, allowing the sounds of the stadium to fill gaps between pitches. Consider him the anti-McCarver. He was also a consummate Southern gentleman, ceding the opportunity to excoriate Fox’s idiot studio host Jeanne Zelasko, who cut him off during the pre-game to the 2005 All-Star Game. Harwell had bounced around with a few teams in the majors – getting his break with the Brooklyn Dodgers when Branch Rickey traded a minor league catcher to the Atlanta Crackers, where Harwell had been broadcasting, to secure his services as a stand-in for Red Barber, hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer. The ingrate Harwell left after a season for the New York Giants. The Dodgers replaced him with a Fordham grad named Vin Scully, who still says he didn’t replace or succeed Harwell, he’s just sitting in his chair. He called the 1951 playoff between the Dodgers and Giants, but for television, so only Russ Hodges “The Giants win the Pennant,” is remembered, then moved to Baltimore in 1954 as one of the Orioles inaugural broadcasters before joining the Tigers in 1960. He spent the next 30 years teaching local geography and confusing children who didn’t know how Harwell knew that a foul ball “was snared by the man from Traverse City.” After the 1991 season, team president Bo Schembechler, having no bowl game to blow, found a new way to break Michigan’s heart and fired Harwell, probably the most unpopular decision in team history, with 97% of respondents in one poll disagreeing with the move. One wonders who the other 3% were. When Mike Ilitch bought the team in 1992, one of his first moves was to bring Harwell back for another 10 years. Diagnosed with cancer last year and given a few months to live, Harwell made an emotional farewell appearance at Comerica Park last season to give Tigers fans a reason to go to the park, and, having lost his battle to save Tiger Stadium, turned many of his Detroit Free Press newspaper columns into thank yous to the fans and an acknowledgement of the joys of his life. Kind of a Tuesdays with Morrie that didn’t make you want to puke.