Detroit Tigers

The Tiger faithful love their team, and stand by their players through good and bad.

That is, after said players have won them over.

Johnny Damon and Jose Valverde didn't exactly hit the ground running in their first few games donning the Olde English D. It took Damon until mid April to get above the Mendoza line, and Valverde blew his very first save opportunity of the year (as many as Fernando Rodney blew all of last year).

The moves were highly-questioned to begin with, within the Tigers fan base and outside it

On Tuesday, one of the greatest baseball announcers of all time past away. Ernie Harwell, the voice of Tigers baseball, died at the age of 92. 

As a lifelong Tigers fan, I have associated Harwell's voice with baseball since my early childhood. Harwell called games for the Tigers for 42 years. Every time I see a home run, I remember Ernie's "and its loooonnng gone!" or his, "two for the price of one," every time the Tigers would turn a double play.

Ernie was far more than just a great play-by-play announcer.

Just as the sun sets on an evening at the ballpark, so has the life of Ernie Harwell.

Harwell, the famed radio announcer for the Detroit Tigers since 1960, passed Tuesday evening before the first pitch in the Tigers-Twins game.

At the ripe age of 92 and suffering from bile duct cancer, Harwell probably defied a lot of odds placed against him. Luckily, for the sake of Tigers fans, he stayed on this earth as long as he did.

Harwell called his last baseball game in 2002.

It is the spring of 1976, before Mark Fidrych’s mercurial career took off, when “the bird” still meant something not so nice.

My friend Kris Donker and I are loitering in the expensive box seats next to the Tigers dugout at Tiger Stadium, prior to a weekend afternoon game. We take in the majesty of the ballpark, with Chicago White Sox players taking batting practice before us.

Unbeknownst to us, we are blocking the access to a swinging gate/door that leads directly to the field.

“Excuse me, fellas!”

"Baseball is the President tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That's baseball."—Ernie Harwell in his Induction Day Speech (August 2, 1981)

Quotes from Ernie Harwell

"Baseball is a lot like life. It's a day-to-day existence, full of ups and downs. You make the most of your opportunities in baseball as you do in life."

I was making dinner for my family Tuesday evening when I got a text  telling me that Ernie Harwell had died at age 92, having suffered from cancer.

Normally, I do not react much when hearing about the death of somebody famous. I feel bad for those who knew the person, but since I don't know the person, I don't feel a need to mourn.

Major league Baseball lost one of its greatest icons today, when legendary Tigers brodcaster Ernie Harwell lost his battle with cancer.

Even though we all knew it was coming it still does not remove the pain that the City of Detroit is going through right now.

Harwell's brodcasting career began in 1943 for the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association.

Ernie Harwell's voice was the soundtrack of my childhood.

Growing up as a sports fan in Michigan, how could it not be?

With today's heart-wrenching news that Ernie has passed away, it's time for me to belatedly dig back through the wonderful memories.

I know millions of Tigers fans—okay, millions of people—have great memories of Ernie Harwell.

But I can't speak for them.

I can only share mine.

- - -

I remember counting down the days until the first spring training game of each season.

Ernie Harwell came to Detroit in 1960, and he never left.

Throughout his 43 years calling baseball games for the Tigers, he inspired many a young baseball fan.

He was behind the microphone when the Tigers were World Champions in 1968 and 1984. He called the final game at Tiger Stadium and the first at Comerica Park. He also called countless contests in between.

Detroit Tigers fans remember Curtis Granderson.

Don't they?

Granderson was ushered off to New York in a multi-player deal, and the former fan-favorite is now a distant memory to the MoTown faithful.

In exchange for Granderson in the three-team merry-go-round, the Tigers received Austin Jackson, Max Scherzer, Daniel Schlereth and Phil Coke.

And the Arizona Diamondbacks got shafted.