Harwell tells interesting stories in audio scrapbook

By Steve Kaminski
The Grand Rapids Press

The New York Yankees had completed spring training and were headed north when the Bronx Bombers made a stop in Atlanta during the spring of 1925.

The Yankees were in town to play the Atlanta Crackers at Ponce de Leon Park, and Babe Ruth came running in from the outfield after the eighth inning. A 7-year-old Ernie Harwell came sneaking up to the dugout with a pen in hand and asked Ruth for an autograph.

“But kid, you don’t have anything for me to sign,” Harwell recalled Ruth saying in his recently released Ernie Harwell’s Audio Scrapbook.

So Harwell stuck his foot and pen over the railing and had Ruth sign his shoe.

“I wore the shoes because I had to, I didn’t want to go barefooted all the time,” Harwell said. “It was probably the only shoes I had, and they eventually had to be tossed aside, and Babe Ruth’s signature went with them.”

I’ve said I could listen to Harwell talk forever. But four hours isn’t bad, either. Ernie Harwell’s Audio Scrapbook, which can be purchased at eharwell.com for $19.84 per copy, consists of four compact discs totaling about four hours of stories, opinions, experiences and rare vintage broadcasts from his 55 years as a Major League Baseball radio announcer.

Harwell, 88, sat down with Bob Harris, who has been the Duke University men’s basketball broadcaster for more than 30 years, and Harris interviews Harwell throughout the scrapbook. Harwell provides unrehearsed, off-the-cuff answers on topics ranging from his childhood to his 42nd and final season with the Detroit Tigers in 2002.

The highlight for me, though, is listening to some of Harwell’s old broadcasts, and two jumped out at me.

The first was listening to Harwell do the play-by-play for a Baltimore Colts game against the Los Angeles Rams during the 1950s. I didn’t know Harwell did football.

It’s not just the vintage broadcasts that keep you listening. The stories and memories he shares are priceless.

Continued at http://www.mlive.com/tigers/grpress/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/116670993551950.xml&coll=6&thispage=2

http://www.mlive.com/tigers/grpress/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/116670993551950.xml&coll=6