it was more than a few times but i did have the honor and luck to hear ernie harwell call a few games for the detroit tigers. ernie was an amazing announcer, to hear him call a game was stunning - even if you didn't like baseball. a voice that was made for it, like vin scully, the voice of the dodgers or jim robson, the canucks announcer for so many years.
ernie passed away today at the age of 92.
i had a chance to meet ernie harwell as he called a game in oakland. i declined. because i was too nervous. i was afraid i would say something stupid, or have nothing to say.
a couple friends of mine, erica hendry and kevin smith, and i had decided to drive down to san francisco to see the tigers play the oakland A's. we had somehow secured press passes and would be sitting in the press box with the real press. we could only get two passes so erica, unfortunately, sat in the regular seats. kevin and i sat in the press box and just tried hard to not be found out - that we really didn't belong there. after the game was a couple innings old a guy came into the press box that you couldn't help but notice. a tall, curly haired blonde guy dressed in a hawaiian shirt and looking slightly disheveled. after he had taken some oranges from the food area he came right over and sat with us. he asked us what was going on. he most certainly didn't fit in with the rest of the press dudes - neither did we.
turned out he was a writer and had interviewed sparky anderson - the tigers manager at the time and former manager of the reds - for playboy years before and had gotten to know sparky and the team pretty well. he also knew ernie harwell. i told him about my love for the tigers, how i grew up loving mark fidrych and how i had driven to tiger stadium. he told me that ernie had been traveling with the team and that he was in the booth doing his call right then and would i like to meet him...i did stand outside the booth and look in while he worked but couldn't meet him. i just couldn't. he also invited us to go to a birthday party that night for sparky and that all the team would be there and ernie may be there as well...we declined...it was nerve racking..young and dumb i guess...
i had told him that i had been looking for a mark fidrych rookie card but that i had had no luck. he mentioned that he thought he had one at home and that if i/we wanted we could come by in the morning the next day and he'd give it to me. we told him we would. and we did. he lived in an apartment with others and had a ton of tigers memorabilia and framed articles on the walls of interviews he had done - with the black panthers, anita bryant and ronald reagan. he was the real deal. he reminded me of hunter thompson. we chatted for a bit and then he gave me the card and we left.
and so it was today, while watching the red wings game, that they announced that ernie harwell had died and it reminded me of my trip to SF and the game, the meeting of ken kelley, watching sparky answer questions in the locker room afterwards while eating lasagna and watching ernie call the game. it was also today that i learned of ken kelley's death two years ago - thanks to the power of the internet.
that's a story. feel free to look it up, i don;t feel like recounting it here - not pretty and not the way i'd like to remember a guy i met once and thought was an interesting individual.
the good times. they've been there all along.
g. xo
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