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Date Posted: 19:49:28 05/05/10 Wed
Author: Exec Asst to HOF Guy
Author Host/IP: 76.226.159.240
Subject: My Ernie Harwell story (by Jim4blue)

Posted on May 5, 2010 at 03:19:42 AM by jim4blue

I attended grad school at Northwestern in the early 80s, and that included a summer term of course work. There were no classes on Wednesdays, and some of us who were big baseball fans decided we would take a road trip to a game at Milwaukee's County Stadium one Tuesday evening. The Brewer fan among us was the son of the County Stadium press box caterer, and he worked it out with his dad such that, if we left Evanston after our final class on a Tuesday, he would invite us up to the press box for a buffet dinner before that night's game. After checking the schedule and finding that the Tigers would be in Milwaukee for a Tuesday night game in August (3 of us were Tiger fans), we bought our tickets and the date was set.

Six of us -- the Brewer fan, a Red Sox fan, a Cub fan, and the three Tiger fans -- made the hour-and-a-half trek to Milwaukee that one August afternoon. Upon arriving at the stadium, we found out that our buffet dinner would be free -- and as you might imagine, the six college boys were anticipating eating heartily. One of my fellow Tiger fans, another guy named Jim, was a big Ernie Harwell fan and couldn't wait to meet Ernie in the press box dining area.

One by one, the media made their way in for dinner. We saw George Kell come by our table, and when he saw some of us in Tiger hats, he stopped and greeted us in his familiar Arkansas drawl, "Howdy, fellas!". We chatted for a few minutes before he excused himself to get some dinner. Al Kaline was much more reserved, but we still took the opportunity to exchange greetings with the Hall of Famer before he left. Then, we approached Paul Carey and he chatted with us for about 10 minutes -- what a great guy. He asked the three of us who were U-M undergrads what brought us to Milwaukee, wanted to hear about grad school in Evanston, etc. He then promised to announce our names to the folks back home, and he took great care as he wrote down the pronunciation of everyone's names. He suggested that we call home and have the parents and siblings listen to the radio that night, and we all did just that.

As great a guy as Paul Carey was, though, he dashed my friend Jim's hopes a bit when he mentioned that Ernie wasn't going to be eating in the press room this particular night. Paul excused himself to go to work, and after we made another round at the buffet, it was time to head to our seats and watch the game. Our caterer host mentioned that a lot of the media had to leave the park around the middle of the game, so he promised us an upgrade to media seats in the front row of the upper deck if we could return to the dining room after the fourth inning. The Tigers jumped out to an early lead behind pitcher Dan Schatzeder (remember him?), and the first few innings flew by until it was time for us to head back to the press area. Our host asked us to wait by the dining area for a few minutes, and then returned to lead us down a maze of catwalks and stairs until we found ourselves in front of a non-descript, weather-beaten wooden door. He knocked on the door, and what a surprise it was for us to suddenly be face-to-face with Ernie Harwell, who then said, "So *here* is the Paul Carey Fan Club!"

Ernie invited the six of us to come through the door into the broadcast booth for a chat. We were all looking around pretty wide-eyed, and my friend Jim was positively thrilled about meeting his idol, Ernie. We chatted about baseball for the visiting half of the 5th inning in the top tier of the booth, while 10 feet away in the lower tier of the booth, Paul Carey was doing the play-by-play. When the middle of the 5th commercial break came, Paul took off the headphones and came up to chat for the full minute or so they were on break. Then, with about 5 seconds to spare, he bounded back down the stairs, grabbed the headphones and resumed the broadcast. Ernie continued to pass along lots of stories and even described his visit to Evanston when he was a correspondent for his first World Series in Chicago back in the 30s -- he remembered many of the campus landmarks that we knew well. Among other things, Ernie also mentioned how he and Paul always broadcast with the booth window open, even on a hot August night like that one, so they could get "the feel of the game". As the 5th inning came to a close, Ernie excused himself and told us he had to catch up on the game and prepare for his turn back on the microphone. We exchanged thank yous with Paul, and then Ernie gave us his signature farewell greeting, "So long, and keep rooting for us!"

We finished watching the Tiger victory from Press Row, hung around to meet a few Brewers dignitaries, and then said our thank yous to our host and began to leave. As we were approaching the stadium exit, we passed by a long ramp, and who should be coming down that ramp but Ernie. He stopped my friend Jim and said, "hey, I think I have something for you". He pulled a baseball out of his oversized satchel and handed it to Jim, who immediately asked for Ernie's autograph. We chatted about getting a Tiger victory on the road, and then Ernie strode off into the night, pausing to say over his shoulder, "Keep rooting for us!" The drive back to Chicago seemed to pass by quickly, as we were pretty pumped about the whole experience.

The story might have ended right there, but…..

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Fast-forward a couple of years, and after graduation, I was working in Dallas as a Finance/Accounting Manager in a manufacturing plant. At a party, I was telling some friends with Michigan ties about my experience meeting Ernie & Paul and George & Al in Milwaukee a couple of years earlier, when one of my friends suggested I write Ernie thanking him for his hospitality and invite him to lunch whenever the Tigers next came to visit the Texas Rangers. So, I dashed off a thank you letter to Ernie c/o Tiger Stadium with a lunch invitation, and then didn't think much else about it.

About two months later, with Internal Auditors crawling all over our plant and making my work life miserable, I received a phone call at the office. It was a double-ringtone call, the tell-tale sign of an outside call, no doubt another Auditor calling from our HQ needing some additional time-consuming, and probably useless, information. I barked into the phone "Hello", when a voice with a distinct Georgia twang asked, "Hi, is this Jim? This is Ernie Harwell." After stumbling over my words thanking him for the call, he told me that he received my letter and asked if I were free to have lunch with him when the Tigers visited Arlington Stadium later in the season. Without hesitation, I told him I would be (I figured I could check dates and Arlington lunch locations later) and made arrangements to pick him up at the Team Hotel for a Friday lunch. Before he hung up, I asked him if he would mind if I brought a few friends to lunch that were Tiger fans, and he said, "Sure, the more, the merrier."

My next phone call was to my cousin from Houston, and he and his wife said they wanted to drive up for the weekend. They, along with another friend and I, drove out to Arlington to pick up Ernie for lunch that Friday. We decided on the Black-Eyed Pea restaurant in Arlington for their Home-Style cooking, and our guest declared that he felt like he was back home in Georgia. He told story after story for about an hour, politely answering all our baseball and broadcasting questions, all the while munching on fried okra and other Southern-style dishes. Ernie then announced it was time for dessert, and what do you suppose was the special of the day? Peach Cobbler, of course. Ernie wasted no time ordering some, proclaimed it an excellent recipe upon tasting it, and then began passing it around the table for us to share. This southern gentleman almost literally had us eating out of the palm of his hand…..

After about an hour-and-a-half, this best-I've-ever-had lunch came to an end, and we dropped Ernie off at his hotel. He asked us if we had tickets to all the games that weekend, and we replied that we hadn't purchased our Sunday seats yet. He told us not to bother and he would leave some tickets for us. He called over his shoulder, "Keep rooting for us", and headed into the hotel.

Well, the 1/2 hour car ride back to Dallas was a fun one, recounting the stories that Ernie told and just generally grinning about the whole experience. And, when we got to Will Call on Sunday, we were delighted yet again to find that Ernie had left us third row seats behind home plate for the game. We also found out later from listeners back home that he thanked us for lunch on the air.

The impression I was left with from those two encounters -- Ernie Harwell was the picture of a true gentleman and a good role model for all. He will truly be missed, and as he passes into what he has termed his next great adventure, the first thing that pops into my mind to say is, "Ernie, keep rooting for us!"

GO BLUE!
jiM

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