A couple of weeks ago a voice from my younger days was stilled.

Ernie Harwell, the voice of the Detroit Tigers for over 40 years, died of cancer at the age of 92. I found out about this when his picture appeared on the TV screen in the lobby of the Macon Marriott where Joyce and I were attending the annual convention of the Georgia Retired Educators Association.

Harwell was a fantastic baseball announcer, selected for the Hall of Fame, a rare honor for a broadcaster.

I grew up in Toledo, a city located between Detroit and Cleveland, whose major league loyalties were split between those two teams. Of course, our home loyalties were with our beloved Mud Hens. But that’s another story.

My choice was Cleveland. Jimmy Dudley announced the games for the Indians, and while there was no station in Toledo that carried the games, we were able to listen to WEOL in Elyria. The Tigers were broadcast on the powerful WJR.

Harwell replaced Harry Heilman, who had played with Babe Ruth. He broadcast from Briggs Stadium when the Tigers were home but used the ticker tape for road games. No crowd noise, no crack of the bat. Just his voice.

Harwell brought a great understanding of and love for the game as well as a love for the Tigers. I left Toledo soon after he took the mike but listened many a time when returning home for a visit. I was even fortunate enough to hear him broadcast a Tigers game in the 1970s as I returned from Atlanta on I-75. WJR came in loud and clear on that late summer evening. I wrote a letter to him about this and he answered, asking that I visit his brother, the head librarian at Georgia Southern. Since I was attending classes there at the time, I did so.

The Georgia-born Harwell had a voice of smooth authority. But a TV announcer gave him what I think is the ultimate compliment: He knew when to be silent!

Given what we hear on radio and TV these days, can you imagine? This talent does not exist. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find myself screaming, silently or loudly, at the TV or radio: “QUIET!!”

It’s been many years since I last heard him. Baseball will miss him! The Midwest will miss him! I will miss him! Thanks, Ernie!