I feel somewhat cheated. It was not until the last year of so — thanks to the MLB Network — did I really get to understand the greatness of Ernie Harwell. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area thousands of miles away from Detroit. Instead of Harwell, I listened to Bill King and Lon Simmons. Not exactly chopped liver.
But what I’ve learned over the last year or so about Harwell is enough to give any baseball fan the chills.
He was a bridge from the present into the past. He met Babe Ruth as a kid, he rubbed elbows with Ty Cobb, and interacted with other legends of the game.
And he gave us several moments, the most popular of which is probably calling the Shot Heard ‘Round the World.
I’m grateful to have written to Harwell, to express my gratitude before his passing. In return I received this autograph displayed above. Harwell was a class act, a sponge of knowledge. We certainly have lost a great one.
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