The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - April 22, 1991- Page 3 q&741# T eltlelcs B oac caste E lr/i Ilate-ulell Harwell Mike Gill ;*. The voice of the Tigers speaks about his past, future endeavors Ernie Harwell came to Ann Arbor on April 12 to sign copies of his books Tuned to Baseball and the recently released Diamond Gems. *Harwell has been the voice of the Detroit Tigers since 1960 and is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. This winter, Harwell an- nounced that a management deci- sion by the Tigers and flagship station WJR would make 1991 his final season with the Tigers. Harwell spoke with Daily sports writer Mike Gill. Daily: Will there be another book, with the success of this one? Harwell: We might have another one, but it's still in the planning stage. I don't know what's going to happen. There's a chance. If some- body wants one, we'll do another. D: How did you come about compiling this? Was it from re- search or from hearing stories passed on? H: Well, it's a combination, re- ally. Some of them are things people have told to me personally that I know. Some of them are things that have happened to me - my involve- ment. Some of them have been sto- ries that have been hanging around for awhile, so you pull them out. Some of them have been researched. D: So you like the newspaper business? I see you're writing a col- umn. H: Well, I started out as a news- paper mar. I would have never got- ten into radio if I hadn't failed as a newspaper guy. I couldn't find a job when I got out of school. I'd been working on the paper for six years and there weren't any jobs open. I got out of college and I just hap- pened to take an audition at a radio * station and got lucky. Otherwise, I would have been a sportswriter all my life. D: How do you react to the pub- lic and the way they feel about you? H: It's hard for me to under- stand, but I appreciate it. I think that the great thing is that the Tigers have so many fans all over Michigan and I just happen to be the pipeline to the Tigers. I think that's probably the reason. D: Did you ever realize before the situation happened in December that you had such a following out there? H: Not really. I knew that peo- ple were interested in the Tigers and the announcer but I didn't think it would come to this extent cer- tainly. It took that situation to trigger it, I guess. D: In the book you just came out with, is there a favorite anecdote you like? H: I sort of like the one about Salty Parker, the fellow who came from Toledo and he never even got to the ballgame. He was one of five or six Tigers who went to the ban- quet afterwards. They were all in- vited. All the players who went got a new Chevrolet. Here he was a rookie, and he just reported that day, and here he went. These old timers that didn't go, they were a little mad because this guy got a car. They'd played for the Tigers for years and, well, it was their fault they didn't go to the banquet so they didn't get a Chevrolet. D: I guess it was worth the time to go to that banquet. H: (laughs) Right. Right. D: As far as your broadcasting style, they say everyone's got their own signature home run call. Dick Enberg, Mel Allen. You've got "Long Gone!" H : Long Gone. It sort of happened a few years ago - I'd say seven or eight years. It just happened, like a lot of things you do. I started doing it and people seemed to react to it, so I just kept it. It's sort of a signature now. D: How long have you done the naming of cities for foul ball recipi- ents? H: That's been going since about the time I came to Detroit. I'd say around 1961 or 1962. That's another thing that happened by accident and people reacted to it and so I kept it going. Somebody hit one into the stands and I just happened to men- tion that this guy's from wherever I said - Livonia or Ann Arbor or wherever. D: I've heard stories that people think the ushers hold up different color signs or numbers to tell you what city they're from. H: Yeah, or we check charts, or we have a computer (laughs) or I check everybody's ID card when they come in the gate. D: They think you're a lot smarter than you really are. H: (laughs) I wish I could be like that. D: Was Opening Day this year a little different feeling for you? H: I think so. I was just glad to get into the game and away from some of the distractions. I spent most of my time doing interviews (before the game). Not that I minded doing it, because I was happy to be available as long as I could, but it was sort of time consuming. D: Were you tired out by the time the game started? H: (laughs) Almost. But I relax during the game. Once you start the broadcast you're concentrating on the game and that's the paramount thing. Everything else just falls into place. D: Is it hard not to hold resent- ment? H: I don't feel that way at all. I just don't feel any bitterness or any animosity toward anybody. I have to accept this. I'm not going to let those feelings creep into my psyche at all. D: Is there any type of scenario you would want for your final game? H: No, I'm going to take it as it comes. I don't like to plan too far ahead. It would be too contrived, I think, if I did it like that. I'll do whatever happens. D: I know you are working with the Domino's Pizza distributor RPM. Have you had a lot of other offers as far as endorsements? H: Yeah, a lot of them. We've turned down quite a few and we're contemplating others. We've got to be careful, we don't want to overex- tend ourselves. D: Would you be interested, come a year from now, to do the ESPN Sunday night game of the week? H: Well, I might. I'm just going to be open to all those types of of- fers and see what happens. D: Does any specific moment stick out to you a little more in your career? H: Yep. From the Tiger stand- point, the Jim Northrup triple in the seventh game of the World Series. Being at Cooperstown when they put me in the Hall of Fame, from a career standpoint, has to be a number one thrill. The other game would be the Bobby Thomson home run in 1951 in the playoff. That's probably the real highlight of my career as far as broadcasting goes. Michigan memories will last us a lifetime Inevitably, each day for the last week someone would come up to me and say, "Eh, Gill, so this one's the last one, huh?" And I would shake my head, admitting that this will be the last time readers of the Michigan Daily will wake up staring at that grotesque face on page three each Monday. "What ya gonna write about?" they would ask. "I don't have a clue," I would say. Then I would ask for suggestions, which were many and varied. "Go out on a blaze of glory," someone said. "Start your own Michigan State-like scandal. Write about athletes out of control at par- ties, staying up too late, swearing, carousing, brawling. Boy, that sure would get them." "Should I include what you do?" I asked. "Oh, no, that doesn't count," came the reply. "How about one more giant rip on the band?" came another sugges- tion. "You know, suggest that they bring in New Kid Donnie Wahlberg for a ceremony and torch Revelli Hall for a big bonfire. It could be a pep rally for the football team before the Notre Dame game." "Nah, bad idea," I said. "Band director Gary Lewis lets out enough of his own bad gas that the place could go up any second." There were numerous other suggestions from friends, but none turned out to be quite the novel idea that they first envisioned. And here I was without a clue of what to say - not to mention an idea of what I'm doing once President George Bush tells me that I am now an alum- nus of this school. So to sound like a commencement speaker, myself and numerous col- leagues sit poised on the frontier of a New World Order. And, to bor- row a phrase from a Ronald Reagan State of the Union address, "we look to the future with courage, confidence and hope." Yeah, right. People talk of moving on - of looking to the future. For some, it might be moving back home with their parents and finding a summer job, before returning to Ann Arbor this fall. For others, it means moving on to a new career. It means saying goodbye to this different midwestern town and heading to all four cor- ners of the country. 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