SABR Nine: Ernie Harwell
Editor’s note: This article by Ryan Chamberlain was published in the July-August 2007 edition of the SABR Bulletin and is reprinted in its original form here. For more from the SABR Bulletin archives, click here.
By Ryan Chamberlain
The iconic Ernie Harwell is a man who needs no introduction to SABR members. To multiple generations, he is as Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck once described during the2002 All-Star Game: “Listen to that voice, man. That’s baseball.”
A fixture for 42 years as the Tigers announcer, he first began as a reporter for The Sporting News, then as an announcer for the Atlanta Crackers in 1943 before he broke into big-league announcing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948 and became the first announcer for the Baltimore Orioles in 1954. Along the way, Harwell found additional time to publish several books, announce football and golf, and have 66 of his songs recorded by various artists. His energy is seemingly boundless.
Even though he officially retired in 2002, it should be no surprise then that the “voice of the turtle” has barely slowed down after 91 years. Recently, he served as a guest color commentator for two Tiger games on Fox Sports News Detroit on May 24 and 25, 2007. Of that experience, Harwell remarked, “I kind of felt like I was starting over again. But Mario Impemba, who did the play-by-play, was very receptive and very kind to me.”
He’s also recently produced a 4-CD audio scrapbook that is, in a word, “exhilarating” to listen to. From a scratchy recording of his 1940 interview with Connie Mack to recordings of his encounters with Willie Mays and Ted Williams, Ernie Harwell’s Audio Scrapbook opens a unique door into the world of one of the all-time greats to sit behind a microphone. Not to mention his encounters with the men who have influenced baseball for over a century.
A SABR member since 1985, Mr. Harwell graciously shares his time with us for this edition of the SABR Nine.
1. Who would you consider your biggest influence?
I think my dad probably. He was an invalid, but he was interested in a lot of things, especially baseball and sports. He gave me a love for the game. He was also a model for showing what a good attitude could do. I looked up to him and he was a very strong influence on me.
2. If you had to change one thing about the way games are broadcast today, what would it be?
My change would be to give the score more often and probably use less statistics and more human interest stories about the players. But I have to give you a caveat on that, because everybody does it his own way and that doesn’t mean the way I like to do it is any better than anybody else’s. It’s a matter of style. I think you have to select your style when you start out and more or less stick with it.
3. What is your opinion about the “bells and whistles” sound effects that have emerged lately in TV game broadcasts?
I’ve got sort of an old-school approach to that. I think that most real fans tune in to hear or see the game and they don’t need any added dramatic effect. They’re happy to see the drama of the game develop and get to the climax and let it really be the story in and of itself. They don’t want the announcer or the sound effects to encroach on the game.
4. What part of the game do you enjoy the most?
I think that I enjoy the game that is close. Maybe not 1-0 but something like 4-3. A game that contains a lot of situations where a man might be at third with nobody out, doesn’t score, the bases loaded, nobody out and then the other team gets a double play, the pitcher gets out of trouble. A good clutch hit, maybe a 3-base hit, with the bases loaded where everybody has to run and you see the fielders going through their actions. There are a lot of facets to the game that are just great.
5. Along those same lines, you’ve encountered individuals who have affected the professional game for over a century, what things stand out to you the most?
Connie Mack is certainly one. It was a real pleasure and a blessing for me to meet him and interview him. But I think probably the most influential baseball man I’ve met was Branch Rickey. He hired me to come to Brooklyn in 1948 and of course his role in the “noble experiment” of Jackie Robinson breaking the color line is I think the most important event that has happened in sports history. But he was very far ahead of the other owners and he knew what was going on long before the others, I think.
6. If you could choose one of your songs to be a popular hit, which one would be and who would perform it?
I’ve got a song named, “What Else, Elsie?” and either Tony Bennett or Stevie Wonder would be great for that song. But you know that’s a dream. I’ve been lucky to have about 66 records cut and some pretty good people did them so I feel lucky enough with the songwriting.
7. Who is someone in baseball that you’ve seen along the way who you think never got the credit they deserved?
I think Vada Pinson was one. He was a great hitter and didn’t get enough credit. Tony Oliva is probably another one. I think Jack Morris, who I was very close to when he pitched for the Tigers, was the outstanding pitcher of his decade in the 1980s and he’s been pretty much shunned. But there are a lot of guys like that and it’s just too bad everyone can’t get into the Hall of Fame.
8. What is unique about Detroit baseball that you’ve connected with personally?
Well, it’s one of the original franchises, it’s been here forever. And it’s one of the cities where you have a generational situation: the dad brings his kid to the ballpark in 1915, the kid grows up and he brings his kid to the ball park, and then another 30 years later … it keeps going generation after generation. Not too many of the original franchises have that touch, I don’t think.
9. How important do you think oral histories such as the ones contained in the audio scrapbook are to preserving the history of the game?
I think it is important. I don’t look at my voice itself as important but the interviews where we heard Connie Mack and Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays and those people. Then the calls by the great announcers that we had and some of the discussion brings out things people might not [already] know, because sometimes an article has to be a little more condensed than an oral history. You know, Larry Ritter set the pathway for that. He was fantastic. I think it was a great contribution that he made and people followed on after that.
Originally published: June 29, 2007. Last Updated: October 28, 2025.