Customer Reviews

Ernie Harwell : Stories From My Life in Baseball (Honoring a Detroit Legend)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ernie was the Voice of Summer for Detroit Tiger fans. His books are welcome reminders of our now fallen hero. While Ernie is no longer with us, his voice reverberates in my mind as I read this and remember the innocent days of my childhood before life became real.

A collection of very short (typically less than 250-word) light riffs on baseball and broadcasting from this Hall of Fame radio play-by-play giant -- some are vaugely interesting, but don't expect any of gee-whiz insights into the game you'd hope for from a broadcaster of Harwell's pedigree.

Disturbingly about 25% of this book contains reprints of stories and articles from his other two books. This is particularly galling considering this is such a slim large-print effort to begin with.

Ernie Harwell is treasured by all Detroit Tigers baseball fans. For many of us, it is his voice we associate with listening to ballgames on summer evenings. Well, Mr. Harwell was also a writer. During the 1990s he wrote a short column for the Free Press over the years. The columns are only a few hundred words each, but they are keen observations of the team and the sport. While the columns come from the 90s, he makes observations and tells stories from many decades. They are quite interesting, well written, and easy to read. They sound like the kind of thing he would say through the mike if he had a few minutes to fill with his thoughts.

Some of these columns have been used elsewhere, but this is still a volume worth having if you are a Harwell fan and fan of the Tigers. The longer you have followed the Tigers the more his stories will mean as they bring back memories of players and games. I am glad to have it on my shelf.

Mr. Harwell's book consist on many short stories that were printed for the detroit press. Most were very fascinating. Some of the stories he has covered in his other books. ernie makes everyone feel as if they are at the park with him. he is very nice in public when i talked to him about the book. he even took time to autograph the book. all in all, a very good book.