It's time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad and I'd much rather say hello. Hello to a new adventure.
Ernie Harwell
Everybody we meet has an influence on us and an impact - good or bad. And I think that's why we have to be careful with the way we handle people because what we're doing is making an impact.
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.
I've found that if you wear a beret, people think you're either a cabdriver or a producer of dirty movies.
I look on life as a joyous adventure.
Everybody in the minor leagues - if you're a player, an announcer, whatever - wants to be in the big leagues.
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.
When I went to Brooklyn in 1948 Jackie Robinson was at the height of his brilliant career.
What happens with any announcer when he comes into an area, if he stays four or five years and does a fairly decent job, people accept him and he becomes part of the family.
In baseball, democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rule book. And color, merely something to distinguish one team's uniform from another's.
It isn't me that people love. It's baseball.
Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic.
The game's the thing. That's why people tune in. They don't tune in to hear an announcer.
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.
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.
I knew that everybody could be replaced. Nobody lasts forever. And if you work for somebody, he's certainly got the privilege and the right to fire you.
I know that Jesus is in charge; he's walking with me.
I'd like to be remembered as someone who showed up for the job. I consider myself a worker.
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.
In radio, they say, nothing happens until the announcer says it happens.
Whatever happens, I'm ready to face it.
A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That's baseball.
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.
God blessed me by putting me here for thirty-one years at Michigan and Trumbull.
I love what I do. If I had my time over again, I'd probably do it for nothing.
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.
I've been lucky to broadcast some great events and to broadcast the exploits of some great players.
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.
With the Giants I broadcast the debut of Hall of Famer Willie Mays.
I have a great faith in God and Jesus.
In my almost 92 years on this earth, the good Lord has blessed me with a great journey.
It's been a terrific life.
Baseball is the president tossing out the first ball of the season. And a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm.
Baseball is a rookie, his experience no bigger than the lump in his throat as he begins fulfillment of his dream.
Nicknames are baseball, names like Zeke and Pie and Kiki and Home Run and Cracker and Dizzy and Dazzy.
I think God always has the best for us.
I just have faith. It's just there. It's not any big deal.
I have great faith that Heaven's there and I'll see my brothers and my mom and dad when I get there.
There's a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh 46 years ago. That's baseball.
Why the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World Series catch, and then dashing off to play stickball in the street with his teenage pals. That's baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying, 'I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.'
Baseball is a tongue-tied kid from Georgia growing up to be an announcer and praising the Lord for showing him the way to Cooperstown. This is a game for America. Still a game for America, this baseball!
I deeply appreciate the people of Michigan. I love their grit. I love the way they face life. I love the family values they have.
I'm a failed newspaper man myself.
I think if you checked the attendance records of all the announcers, you'd find a lot better record than you would of anybody else in any other business because we love the game and have a passion for it.
The best thing anyone can do is be himself. Everyone was made different by God, and that's the way it should be. And if I were a writer or an announcer starting out, I don't think I'd imitate anybody. I'd try to be whatever I am.
