Here is a compilation of Ernie Harwell related articles, videos, and information about ceremonies and remembrances. The above picture was taken by current Tigers broadcaster and former radio partner of Harwell, Dan Dickerson shortly after the news filtered out last night.

Ceremonies

The funeral and memorial will be a private affair. However, there will be a public viewing taking place at Comerica Park on Thursday May 6th. The viewing begins at 7 a.m. at Gate A. It will last as long as it takes and complimentary parking is available in Lots 1, 2, and 3.

To further the endowment of the Ernie Harwell Collection at the Detroit Public Library and to fund partial college scholarships, please send memorial donations to the Ernie Harwell Foundation c/o S. Gary Spicer, 16845 Kercheval Ave., Grosse Pointe, MI 48230.

The team will wear uniform patches for the remainder of the season and a flag will be raised at Comerica Park prior to the May 10th game against the New York Yankees.

In light of the news of Ernie Harwell’s passing, MLB Network will re-air Harwell’s interview on “Studio 42 with Bob Costas” tomorrow, Wednesday, May 5 at 4:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. CT.

Multimedia

Below is an audio clip of Dan Dickerson and Jim Price both announcing, and coming to terms with the news during the first inning of last night’s game. It was painful, poignant, and touching. Dan and Jim had to experience their grief over the air, live. A terrific job by both.

Download audio file (ernies-passing.mp3)

• Ernie’s Comerica Park farewell
• Vin Scully remembers Ernie
• Jim Leyland’s post game media session
• A compilation of clips as broadcasters remember Harwell
• Paul Carey on WDFN

Commentary

• Detroit Tiger Tales: Ernie Harwell Passes Away at 92
• Bless you Boys: Tigers icon Ernie Harwell passes away
• Detroit News: Baseball reacts to Harwell’s death
• MLB.com: Harwell’s passing felt in Tigers clubhouse
• MLB.com: Harwell’s passing hits broadcasters hard
• MLB.com: Tributes flow about beloved Harwell
• Fox Sports Detroit: Ernie Harwell Tribute
• Big League Stew: Ernie Harwell, owner of Motown’s sweetest voice
• Hardball Talk: Ernie Harwell 1918-2010
• Joe Posnanski: Ernie
• Jon Paul Morosi: Tigers legend installed love of baseball
• Ian Casselberry: This is our last goodbye
• Curtis Granderson: Remembering the good times with Ernie
• NYMag: Ernie Harwell died yesterday

When it was announced late last summer that Ernie Harwell had cancer, everyone knew this day would be coming too soon. Sadly, it came May 4th, 2010 as William Earnest “Ernie” Harwell has passed away at the age of 92.

I don’t have a unique story to tell about my relationship with Ernie. It was similar to the relationship millions of fans had over the years. He was a comforting voice, a soothing sound of summer on a warm evening. But you all knew that.

I had the pleasure to speak with Ernie one time. He agreed to do an interview for this site (Part 1 & Part 2). It was only the second interview I’d done and I was incredibly nervous. Mr. Harwell was incredibly gracious and instantly put me at ease. As I stumbled through my questions he would start to spin an answer so eloquent that I’d forget I was the one he was actually talking to. It was like I was a kid listening to him call a game.

There isn’t too much left to say at this point. Instead I will link to an article I wrote following the game in which he addressed the fans at Comerica Park.

Ernie Harwell and the Moment

Things have been very quiet here at DTW lately. While it wasn’t my intention for things to go dark here, when it’s a one person gig sometimes life gets in the way. Fortunately life will be out of the way this coming week so my winter meetings coverage should be pretty robust and very timely. In the mean time I’ll use this post as a way of catching up on everything that got neglected.

Polanco signs with the Phillies

The biggest new I failed to cover was the end of Placido Polanco’s career as a Tiger. This was a likely outcome after the Tigers declined to offer arbitration. With no draft pick attached the Phillies moved quickly and handed Polanco a 3 year, $18 million deal to play third base.

The deal was aggressive and it may have been an indication that the Phillies would have signed Polanco regardless of his arbitration situation. We’ll never know of course one way or the other. My guess though is that if the Phillies didn’t care about the pick, they probably could have signed him prior to the Tigers decision when there wouldn’t have been as much competition for his services. Beck has more on the negotiation and Tigers decision.

As for the deal itself, using WAR and Polanco’s past stats would indicate the Phillies got a steal just on the surface. Polanco has been at least a 3 WAR player the last 3 years which means he’s been worth about $12-14 million a season. But part of that value comes in the fact that Polanco played a premium position. He’ll lose some value moving to 3rd base. He’ll also age. He’s also playing a position he hasn’t played regularly since he was a Phillie last time around. I think Polanco will look like a bargain this year, but look pretty expensive at the end of the contract.

Brian Peterson & Cale Iorg interviews

Mark Anderson at TigsTown has been busy. Over the last week he’s conducted interviews with Cale Iorg and Brian Peterson. Everybody knows Iorg as the Tigers shortstop prospect where there has been a huge disagreement between tools and results. Iorg does seem to be a pretty sharp guy though who has dealt with the adversity well and isn’t afraid of hard work. When Anderson asked about his offseason Iorg’s response was:

I want to work out a lot, to try to get stronger and stuff. I just want to do a lot of hitting stuff. I can obviously work with my Dad. My Dad knows my swing better than anybody out there, so work with him and just really try to get my work in – get good work in. It’s not all about how many times I go, or how many swings I get when I get there; it’s just being consistent with what I do when I’m there. My whole off-season is to prepare for spring training. Whether I go to big league camp again, I don’t know yet, but if I do, then I want to be prepared to play like people have said I can play.

Now not as many people may know about Peterson. He is the organization’s Performance Enhancement Instructor and in his role he helps players with the mental side of the game. He’s been with the organization for seven years and he held a similar role with Dave Dombrowski’s Marlins teams as well. It appears that Dombrowski was an early mover in seeing the value in a role like this:

I think Dave has been very progressive. Theforiginal guy that started doing this type of work was Harvey Dorfman who the A’s used in the early 80’s. Dave Dombrowski hired Harvey with the Marlins in 1992 when we first started the Marlins organization. Dave has been really progressive in this area. He really believes in it and he knows that it helps players. I think he is one of the guys at the forefront in seeing that this type of position can really help the players.

Other stuff

• Joel Zumaya’s rehab is complete and he should be ready to go for spring training
• Danny Knobler wrote a really well reasoned analysis of the Tiger situation
• Jonathan Mayo took a look at the Tigers 2009 draft
• Lee Panas previews the winter meetings from the Tigers perspective
• Ernie Harwell makes a public appearance and steals the show

When it was announced that Ernie Harwell would be a trip to Comerica Park to address the fans my first instinct was that I should look into tickets. I hemmed and hawed and after reading a wonderful article by Tom Gage I decided that I simply had to be in the stadium that Wednesday night. I don’t know that I’ve ever described myself as melancholy before, but that was an apt description that day. During lunch I found a single ticket in the second row on StubHub and I pulled the trigger. I’d be in the park for Ernie’s Thank You/Farewell.

The night was somber in so many ways. It was a celebration of the greatest generation and World War II veterans. A celebration, but hardly a party. A time to honor those that were there and remember those that weren’t.

Plus there is something about late season games. The park just feels different. There is a little chill in the air, the park darkens more quickly than at the height of summer, and the end of summer as dictated by baseball’s 162 game season is palpable. The anticipation and build up that fans feel starting in February is coming to a close and the thought of a long cold winter looms. The setting was appropriate for the greatest Tiger of them all to once again step-up to the microphone.

Before the bottom half of the 3rd inning the Harwell video tribute played on the big screen. It was some of the highlights of Ernie’s career, punctuated by his Hall of Fame acceptance speech featuring his “Baseball, A Game for All America.”

I expected to be a mess when Harwell started talking, yet the tears didn’t come. Something about seeing Harwell burst on to the field with his arms high made me happy, not sad. Harwell stepped up to the microphone and didn’t deliver a speech. There were no notes or teleprompters. It was just a man saying thank you to his ultra extended family, and a chance for said family to say you’re welcome.

The speech was brief, and articulate, and the content not especially memorable. In other words it was vintage Harwell and I mean that as the utmost compliment.

It was never the big moments that Harwell made special in his career. Go back and watch the tribute video and the highlights. Ernie called everyone of those plays straight. There was excitement sure, but there weren’t especially memorable sound bytes or phrases. It was a simple and accurate description of what was taking place. Harwell let the moment be the moment. When something big was happening it never needed embellishment.

What made Harwell great in his career and differentiated him was all of the small moments. That’s when people stood there like by the house by the side of the road and watched one go by. That’s when they got two for the price of one and were out for excessive window shopping. There was talk of the Tigers looking for instant offense, but that was before the fact when that offense was a hope. It was the stories that Harwell weaved effortlessly and unobtrusively into the pauses and rhythm of a game. It was in those quiet times when a fan from Lexington would be lucky enough to catch a foul ball.

It is the accumulated total of all those small moments that bound generations together, put kids to bed at night, and  provided the soundtrack of summer in Detroit.

And on his night, there was plenty of emotion in the building. It was a big moment, but Harwell simply shared it with us like he has so many times before. In typical Ernie fashion, and this is true of any interaction with the man I’ve ever heard described, when it was done you try and figure out how it is that Harwell seemed to be the one who was most grateful for the opportunity to be with you. He finished talking and all I could do was smile.

The following night I got home from work and pulled up the video and watched it with my kids. It was then, watching it again, that the emotion and sadness of the situation hit me again and I welled up.

Editor’s note: Yes I know this post is late. A variety of circumstances kept me from writing this. Exhaustion, other commitments, and a kind of important Twins series delayed this longer than it should have.

The news certainly puts a damper on, well, everything. Legendary Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell has been diagnosed with an incurable cancer that is near his bile duct. Harwell is 91 and has had very good health up until this point. Prayers go out to Ernie and his bride of 68 years Lulu.

Not even cancer diagnosis can shake Harwell’s spirit | Detroit Free Press | Freep.com

Continuing on with my interview with Ernie Harwell. Click here for part one.

At this point we wrapped things up and I thanked Mr. Harwell profusely.

He was very generous with this tims, and very patient with me as I nervously stumbled through my questions. I grew up listening to Ernie, and the number of times that he and Paul Carey put me to bed at night were countless. I’d set my clock-radio to ‘Sleep’ and listen as long as I could stay awake. When I shared that with Ernie his response was simply, “we sure cured a lot of insomnia.”

The biggest thrill for me doing this interview was listening to Ernie talk about some of his favorite stories. Each story on its own isn’t that remarkable. However, it is all the small stories, like the ones he shared, that seperate baseball from the other sports. It’s the funny quotes and situations that can only be born in the midst of a summer long schedule. When the stories are combined they form the fabric of the games itself. And to hear Ernie tell the stories in his own voice, that is what baseball is all about.

I know that some of you commented in the other post that you could hear Ernie saying the words as you read them. I exerienced a similar phenomenon while conducting the interview. Hearing him talk was so second nature, I almost forgot sometimes that I was having a conversation with him, and not listening on the radio. It was a tremendous thrill for me to do this, and I hope that you guys enjoy it.

For those who have lived in the metro Detroit area, there is one voice that is instantly equated with summer. That voice belongs to Mr. Ernie Harwell. Harwell called Tiger games from 1960 through his retirement in 2002 (except for a messy 1992 season). Prior to coming to Detroit, he worked for Baltimore, the NY Giants, and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

He’s called no-hitters, World Series’, Willie Mays debut, Bobby Thomson’s shot heard round the world, and has seen and experienced the game like few others have. He remains the only announcer to be acquired via a trade (Branch Rickey sent Cliff Dapper to the Atlanta Crackers in exchange for Harwell). Harwell’s distinctive voice and no frills attention to detail led to a longevity that made evenings at the cottage with Ernie a tradition and rite of summer.

Mr. Harwell was kind enough to spend a morning speaking with me over the phone. Here is part 1 of that interview:

Part 2 will becoming in the next day or two once I get a chance to transcribe it, and we’ll talk about the Hall of Fame, the Veterans Committee, and steroids in baseball.