Ernie Harwell Quotes (30 Quotes)

God blessed me by putting me here for thirty-one years at Michigan and Trumbull.

I think I owe thanks to the people who have listened to me over the years, who tuned in on the radio. They have given me a warmth and loyalty that I've never been able to repay. The way they have reached out to me has certainly been the highlight of my life.

It's a lot harder for one guy to make a reputation for himself in radio than it used to be because the listener has so many options.

I'd like to be remembered as someone who showed up for the job. I consider myself a worker.

If you heard Harry Caray, he was best. If you heard Vin Scully, he was the best. If you heard Jack Buck, he was the best. That's the way it went. When I started, you were the only game in town, whether the listener liked it or not. They had to listen. Good or bad, you had to be in their ear.

That other saying, I'm a part of all that I have met, I think that would have to begin with my wonderful parents back in Atlanta when I was a youngster five years old I was tongue tied.

I decided very early that I was going to be a reporter, that I would not cheer for the team. I don't denigrate people who do it. It's fine.

I love the game because it's so simple, yet it can be so complex. There's a lot of layers to it, but they aren't hard to peel back.

It's a great idea. Now, there's really a way to compare these guys. I enjoy the versatility of the different announcers.

I've been lucky to broadcast some great events and to broadcast the exploits of some great players.

McDonough said, referring to the Hall-of-Fame announcer who spent more than four decades as the voice of the Detroit Tigers. ''I thought I'd be with the Red Sox all my career. Really, it's the only play-by-play job I ever wanted.

A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That's baseball.

I had a job to do, and I did it all these years to the best of my ability. That's what I'd like to leave behind as I finish my final game in Toronto.

I love what I do. If I had my time over again, I'd probably do it for nothing.

Especially in this strike filled year but my feelings about the game are still the same as they were back then and I think that maybe yours are too.

When I went to Brooklyn in 1948 Jackie Robinson was at the height of his brilliant career.

With the Giants I broadcast the debut of Hall of Famer Willie Mays.

I praise the Lord here today. I know that all my talent and all my ability comes from him, and without him I'm nothing and I thank him for his great blessing.

Tom told me this wonderful story about how Ernie and his wife invited Tom and his wife over in Florida one time for a dish of ice cream. Who in this day invites you over for a dish of ice cream. Just wonderful.

For more than three decades, Ernie Harwell was the voice of the Detroit Tigers. His Georgia voice was as sweet as a mint julep, and he rode it into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1981. Now 87 and retired from broadcasting, Harwell told The Denver Post's Anthony Cotton recently that the hardest thing he does these days is lift my feet up when my wife runs the vacuum cleaner. ... I'm a spokesman for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. We signed a 10-year contract with a 10-year option, so I have to live to be 106. And I'm going to do it or die trying.

Also I'm a part of the people that I've worked with in baseball that have been so great to me, Mr. Earl Mann of Atlanta, who gave me my first baseball broadcasting job.

I'm not an expert. I just want people to stay healthy, keep in shape and live the best life they can.

I always played it down the middle myself. I had my own rule. If anything affects the game, if it would be in the paper or people were going to talk about it, I had to mention it. If a player missed the cutoff man or threw to the wrong base, you have to report it. If he made three errors, it's a matter of fact. Nobody that I ever worked for a ballclub or sponsor told me to do this or do that. I never had to contend with that. I feel sorry for the guys who get in that situation. It's not their fault.

If I walked back into the booth in the year 2025, I don't think it would have changed much. I think baseball would be played and managed pretty much the same as it is today. It's a great survivor.

Radio will always be with us because of its great portability. TV can't give you that.

We had a dog in those days named Blue Grass and the players used to give us their Wheaties for him. Blue Grass loved Wheaties and so did I.

Baseball is a lot like life. It's a day-to-day existence, full of ups and downs. You make the most of your opportunities in baseball as you do in life.

Baseball just a came as simple as a ball and bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, a business and sometimes almost even a religion.

Radio is such a great medium. It makes you use one of the most important things God gave you imagination. The listener can picture what the announcer is telling you.

But most of all, I'm a part of you people out there who have listened to me, because especially you people in Michigan, you Tiger fans, you've given me so much warmth, so much affection and so much love.