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Longtime Detroit Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell has turned 90 today.
Harwell started broadcasting in 1943 for the Atlanta Crackers and in 1948 he moved on to the Brooklyn Dodgers and then to the New York Giants in 1950 and he handled the television call of the famous 1951 Dodgers-Giants playoff. I believe there was a home run at the end of the third game.
From 1954-59, Harwell broadcast for the Baltimore Orioles and then moved on to the Tigers in 1960 and broadcast for them through 2002, with the exception of 1992 when then Tigers president Bo Schembechler fired Harwell.
It will be just a few more weeks before spring training starts. Harwell traditionally welcomed in each new season with this Biblical passage:
"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."
You can find audio clips of Harwell's work at his own website.
A tip of the cap, sir.
Don't mess with an "It's a Wonderful Life" fanatic.
"And he stood there like the house by the side of the road and watched that one go by."
Seeing Tiger Stadium go to pot was hard, but Ernie Harwell's voice is something that keeps 1984 and the Trammell feed to Lou Whitaker alive in my head. Awesome, awesome memories.
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