By Kathie Shaffer
As a little girl growing up in metropolitan Detroit, I fondly remember the summer sights and sounds of the city. Most vivid is the smooth Southern drawal that echoed from the radio on long, hot, lazy afternoons.
The words “It’s long gone!” were as synonymous with baseball in Detroit as hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet were with America. These words, however, were only words until spoken by the Detroit Tigers’ very own Hall of Fame announcer, Mr. Ernie Harwell.
When I first started as public relations manager at Fox Run (an Erickson-built and –managed community in Novi, Mich.), I learned that Mr. Harwell and his wife Lu Lu were residents but were vacationing in Florida. One day, as I was walking through the clubhouse on campus, I heard a voice unlike any other. I didn’t even have to turn around—I knew Ernie Harwell was back home at Fox Run!
I recently spent time with the Harwells in their lovely Fox Run home to discuss Ernie’s recent book, Life After Baseball, a compilation of favorite columns he wrote for the Detroit Free Press.
Q: This is not your first book. There are several others including Tuned To Baseball, Diamond Gems, The Babe Signed My Shoe, and Ernie Harwell, Stories From My Life in Baseball. Will you write another?
A: Yes, probably in a couple of years.
Q: Your best “Ernie Harwell” column?
A: The one about Pop Keeler, the golf writer in Atlanta. “Keeler was Mr. Big and he was my hero. I went to Keeler’s home. He warmly welcomed me . . . That was my first golf broadcast and now—more than 50 years later—Pop Keeler is still my hero.” Keeler Will Always Be An Ace To Me, originally published on 8/14/96.