Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 2006 • Baseball Clip • Ernie Harwell • Part 6 of 8 - Tigers 1980s and 90s - Radio Interview

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2006 • Baseball Clip • Ernie Harwell • Part 6 of 8 - Tigers 1980s and 90s - Radio Interview · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

• 0:00
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• 0:06
  Phone calls have made such an important impact on your career, your life, and in 1981 you got another phone call from a little bitty town in northern New York, Cooperstown.
• 0:20
  Yeah, right. They didn't call me direct for some reason. I don't know what the procedure is at Cooperstown for the Ford C. Frick winner,
• 0:28
  and that was the award I won that got me into the Hall of Fame. But they had called Jim Campbell. Maybe they were trying to find me because I was down in Florida.
• 0:36
  And Lulu called me to the phone and said, it's Mr. Campbell. And I answered the phone and Jim said, congratulations. I said, what do you mean?
• 0:43
  He said, well, you've been elected to the Hall of Fame. And that probably was the biggest thrill that I've ever had because it meant going up there and being on the platform with those great players and having all the family there.
• 0:55
  It was a great thing for me. And it was a phone call that I really cherish.
• 1:00
  The Tigers get back to the World Series in 1984. Great start to the season. You go 35 and five right out of the chute. That just propelled that team to great things.
• 1:11
  Oh, it did. When you win 35 out of the first 40 games, you've got such a nice cushion that you know unless there's a complete collapse, you're going to make the playoffs.
• 1:21
  But ironically, Sparky Edison told me that that was the most nervous season he'd gone through as a manager because the Tigers were establishing this magnificent record.
• 1:32
  Sparky always feared they would hit the playoffs and be eliminated and not get in the World Series.
• 1:39
  And it would take away the achievement of the team in the regular season. And it did bother him a lot.
• 1:46
  They didn't have a lot of superstars, but they had Jack Morris and Lance Parrish and Gibby and some of those guys.
• 1:51
  And Trammell, of course, was a superstar, Whitaker. But they seemed to just get together and do the right thing.
• 1:58
  And they built confidence as it went along. And it was a great season to be around.
• 2:04
  But I remember one incident that we had in Anaheim. The Tigers had been on Sports Illustrated. They'd been in Sporty News.
• 2:11
  Sparky had been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Everybody was writing about Sparky and the Tigers.
• 2:17
  And they were breaking the record for most consecutive road wins.
• 2:21
  And they won a game in Anaheim and they won another game in Anaheim. And we were getting ready to go to Seattle.
• 2:27
  And Sparky and I were sitting in the coffee shop there at the hotel in Anaheim.
• 2:31
  And a guy comes up and interferes with Sparky's breakfast. He says, hey, I'm from San Diego, Spark.
• 2:37
  And I used to be in Cincinnati. I'm a great Cincinnati fan, the big red machine.
• 2:42
  You are the greatest manager in baseball. You are simply terrific. By the way, what are you doing now?
• 2:48
  Oh, and Sparky went back to his cornflakes immediately.
• 2:55
  They did not lose in the playoffs. They advanced to the World Series. How did they take care of business?
• 3:01
  Well, they took care of business with good pitching and good balance. They swept the series with Kansas City.
• 3:06
  They had no trouble at all with the Kansas City team.
• 3:09
  Then I think most of the people around Detroit were sort of hoping that the Cubs would win their playoff.
• 3:16
  And those two teams would meet in the World Series because it was somewhat of a rivalry between Chicago and Detroit.
• 3:22
  But Mr. Garvey saw differently and he led the San Diego Padres past the Cubs.
• 3:28
  And the Padres were the team that represented the National League against the Tigers.
• 3:33
  And the Tigers went out there, opened the series and won the first game, lost the second and then won all the others.
• 3:39
  And it was a great time in Detroit. The celebration was marred to some extent by a guy barbecuing a taxi cab.
• 3:47
  And that picture got all over the world. It wasn't really symbolic of the city at that time, but people made the world feel that it was.
• 3:56
  But it was a great time in Detroit. And I think we still celebrate that 84 team.
• 4:01
  There was a dramatic moment in that ballgame. And you alluded to Gibby a few minutes ago.
• 4:06
  Kirk Gibson had a dramatic home run in the eighth inning that put the Tigers up and pretty much wrapped up the series, didn't it?
• 4:13
  Well, that iced it, yeah. And he hit it against Gossage, who had always been a nemesis of Gibby's.
• 4:18
  And the first time they'd ever met, Goose struck him out. And Goose talked Dick Williams into keeping him in the ballgame.
• 4:25
  And after that short conversation, Gibby parked one in the upper deck in right field for the climactic home run of that World Series.
• 4:35
  Here's the pitch. He swings as a long drive to right. And it is a home run for Gibson.
• 4:42
  A three run home run for the Tigers, leading eight to four in the eighth inning.
• 4:48
  Who would win 68 or 84?
• 4:51
  Well, I've dodged that question all my life, so I'm going to dodge it one more time, I think.
• 4:55
  They were two great teams. And I think they are my favorite teams.
• 4:59
  I did pick the Yankees as the best team, but my favorite team would be one of those two, 68 or 84.
• 5:05
  I'd say it ended in a flat footed tie. But both of those teams got off to a good start and they had great balance.
• 5:13
  Each had a terrific catcher, Bill Freehand and Lance Parrish.
• 5:18
  They had a good keystone combination and they had a good center fielder.
• 5:22
  So that was a great fundamental fact for each one of those teams.
• 5:28
  And the 68 team had an interesting year because they were more of a come from behind team.
• 5:34
  They got out in front early in the season and they were in first place except for six games.
• 5:41
  But as far as an individual game, they always had a different hero.
• 5:46
  They'd get a guy off the bench that would hit a home run.
• 5:49
  Tommy Maciek, Dick Trzysiewski, Jim Price, somebody like that would hit a home run.
• 5:54
  They had a great home run hitter in Willie Horton, but they didn't have a 300 hitter for the season, not among the regulars.
• 6:02
  Willie Horton led the team hitting about 285.
• 6:05
  But they had good power and they had pretty good speed and they had great defense.
• 6:10
  And of course, they had terrific pitching in the Denny McLean, Mickey Lowlich and Earl Wilson.
• 6:18
  And they didn't have the bullpen that the 84 team had.
• 6:21
  But in those days, you didn't depend on the bullpen like you do now.
• 6:25
  In 84, of course, they got off to the 35 and 5 record and they had a great team.
• 6:31
  And I don't know, you know, you'll never beat Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell and had a terrific center fielder in Chet Lemon.
• 6:39
  And Darrell Evans came and had a lot of home runs and helped out.
• 6:43
  So it was just a great team.
• 6:45
  And I don't think one's any better than the other.
• 6:47
  And I'm not going to make a choice there.
• 6:50
  It seems like I don't know whether it's a prerequisite for a Hall of Fame denotation,
• 6:54
  but a lot of Hall of Fame broadcasters, including you and I, have been fired at one time or another.
• 7:01
  Yes, Bob, quite a few Hall of Famers have been fired in the course of their careers.
• 7:06
  Mel Allen and Red Barber, the first two that ever went into the Hall of Fame, were both fired by the New York Yankees.
• 7:13
  And then a lot of the other announcers, Harry Carrey, for instance, has been fired.
• 7:19
  I got fired in 1990.
• 7:21
  We had a meeting at Tigers Stadium and the Tigers told me that I would work one more year and after that, I wouldn't come back.
• 7:29
  And I understood that.
• 7:31
  I think when you work for somebody, he's got a right to hire you and he's got a right to fire you.
• 7:35
  And also, I realized as a baseball historian that nobody lasts forever and everybody can be replaced.
• 7:42
  And I never held any bitterness or acrimony about that.
• 7:47
  I just went ahead and tried to do the job.
• 7:50
  And after the 1991 season, which was my final season, I worked for the California Angels.
• 7:56
  I did some games for them and I did the game of the week for CBS, which I had done from time to time before when I could get off.
• 8:04
  But it was a part of my career that really got me into the national spotlight a little bit more than I had been.
• 8:12
  And I think, as the Bible tells us, all things happen for good.
• 8:16
  And I think it was probably the best thing in the long run that ever happened in my career.
• 8:22
  When a door closes, a window opens.
• 8:24
  And sure enough, a great window opened for you because then you took your integrity that you'd had in the booth and you went into the corporate America world for what was going to be a brief period of time.
• 8:36
  But it's turned out to be almost a second career.
• 8:39
  It is a second career and I've been with the Blue Cross Blue Shield as their spokesman.
• 8:43
  I've done a lot of commercials.
• 8:45
  I've worked for different companies.
• 8:47
  I've met a lot of people in industry and commerce that have helped me out and made me feel a lot better and certainly aided my career in the long run.
• 8:57
  1993 brings a change in ownership of the Tigers and a chance for you to return to the broadcast booth.
• 9:04
  One of the great things that happened to me in my career, my lifetime for that matter, was that Mike Illich, after he bought the Tigers, one of the first things he did was to bring me back to the Tigers.
• 9:14
  My agent, Gary Spicer, had called him from Arizona.
• 9:17
  He said, come in and bring Ernie.
• 9:19
  I want to talk here.
• 9:20
  The next day we got in there.
• 9:22
  They fixed up a letter in 20 minutes and I was back with the Tigers.
• 9:28
  September 27, 1999, Ernie, you would say goodbye to an old friend.
• 9:33
  Tiger Stadium, that was the last home game that you got to work in that facility.
• 9:37
  It was with Kansas City and a Grand Slam homer in the bottom of the eighth by Robert Fick kind of set things up for you to take it through the ninth inning and wish that stadium goodbye.
• 9:46
  It was a wonderful time for me and I think for all the fans of Detroit and a little bittersweet, though, because we were saying goodbye to the old ballpark that everybody had loved over the years.
• 9:57
  And the great thing was that all the old Tigers were brought back.
• 10:00
  They had a terrific ceremony, Eldon Arca and Brad Osmas, the two representatives of the new and the old Tigers.
• 10:09
  And the terrific thing about that whole night, Bob, was the reverence that the crowd showed to old Tigers Stadium because they had a jam packed stadium and a little incident that might have been untoward, could have ruined the whole program.
• 10:23
  But all these people jammed in together with a common bond, the love for the ballpark.
• 10:29
  They were very reverent of it. And the program went off without a hitch.
• 10:33
  And I think everybody really enjoyed it.
• 10:35
  It was a time of great sentiment for me because I was losing an old friend.
• 10:41
  And I think I almost broke up right at the end of my little speech there, but I did make it through.
• 10:47
  And it was a great day and a great night.
• 10:50
  And I will always cherish that moment.
• 10:53
  And the big crowd now anticipating the end of this game, 8-2, the Tigers in the lead.
• 10:59
  And here's the set by Jonesy and the pitch at the ball.
• 11:02
  Now, folks, I'm going to say my goodbye to Tigers Stadium.
• 11:06
  So I'm going to forget about the play by play for a moment.
• 11:09
  How do you talk to a legend?
• 11:11
  Can you say goodbye to a shrine?
• 11:13
  Can you walk away from a treasure?
• 11:15
  It's not easy.
• 11:17
  You do it with a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye.
• 11:20
  For almost 40 years, I've spent as much time at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull as I have at home.
• 11:25
  I've been elated, dejected, thrilled and disappointed here.
• 11:29
  I've sweltered through the summer heat.
• 11:31
  I've frozen in the spring and fall in sickness and in health.
• 11:35
  It's been my home, my office and my refuge.
• 11:38
  When I first came here to broadcast, it was Briggs Stadium and then Tigers Stadium.
• 11:42
  And somewhere along the way, I began to call it the corner of Michigan and Trumbull.
• 11:47
  And soon shortened that to just the corner.
• 11:50
  To me, it will always be the corner, the most famous corner in Michigan.
• 11:54
  Tigers Stadium has been a dear friend.
• 11:57
  And even though I look forward to our new home, Comerica Park, and to the thrill of watching new Tigers stars,
• 12:02
  this old corner and its great players will remain a timeless gift of the past.
• 12:07
  The corner is part of our history, our heritage.
• 12:10
  It's been magic, hope and the true heartbeat of our city.
• 12:16
  Baseball memories have come here to live and to be treasured.
• 12:19
  And you and I have been part of those memories.
• 12:22
  We've flew to the home runs and strikeouts and double plays.
• 12:25
  From generation to generation, we've joined that joyous crowd.
• 12:29
  And all of us love this old place.
• 12:31
  And its closing chugs at our heart.
• 12:34
  And like you, like all of us, I will cherish its memories.
• 12:37
  I know that there's never been a corner like Michigan and Trumbull.
• 12:44
  Now comes 2000 to your final season in the booth at Detroit.
• 12:48
  Did you do a farewell tour, so to speak?
• 12:51
  You know, players sometimes when they retire, you know, the different cities around the league will honor them with a chair or with, you know, different things like that.
• 12:58
  Did you have anything like that happen?
• 13:00
  Well, we did have that. I really didn't like that very much.
• 13:03
  But it was something that you couldn't turn down.
• 13:06
  And you'd go to a certain city, Cleveland or wherever, and they'd say, look, we want to have a little thing on the scoreboard about you.
• 13:13
  And we want to make a presentation.
• 13:16
  Or maybe they'd say we'd like for you to throw out the first ball.
• 13:19
  And that was a very thoughtful of them.
• 13:21
  And some places, you know, we'd like to name the visiting radio booth after you.
• 13:26
  And it's something that you deeply appreciate.
• 13:28
  And you don't want to offend anybody.
• 13:31
  But it got to a point where it was almost the only time I could relax.
• 13:35
  That season was when I was in the radio booth broadcasting the game.
• 13:39
  Because the people probably paid me a lot more attention than I deserved.
• 13:43
  And it would have been a lot better if I had just gone my way without it.
• 13:47
  But there wasn't any way to avoid it.
• 13:49
  Did you do anything differently that year in the booth?
• 13:52
  Once you got on the air?
• 13:54
  I've always felt that the game is a thing and the announcer is just a small part of it.
• 13:59
  People tune in to hear the game.
• 14:00
  They want to know whether the Tigers are winning or losing, what the score is.
• 14:05
  And it doesn't matter who's doing the game, they're going to tune in whether you work
• 14:09
  or you don't work because they are interested in baseball.
• 14:12
  Therefore, I think the game has to be the focus of the announcer and not himself.
• 14:19
  Any regrets in leaving the booth when you did?
• 14:21
  No, I don't think so.
• 14:23
  I felt like I wanted to quit while I was still doing fairly well.
• 14:27
  I didn't want everybody to get to the point where they were saying in large numbers, why
• 14:32
  did that old guy hang it up and let somebody take over that can do the job?
• 14:36
  I didn't want to leave with that kind of a feeling.
• 14:39
  And I felt like if I made a mistake quitting too early, that was better than making a mistake
• 14:44
  and staying too long.
• 14:46
  Detroit Tigers WKR.