One of the most beloved baseball broadcasters this country has ever known learned recently that he has incurable cancer.

Yet, 91-year-old Ernie Harwell says when he heard the news he had a feeling of security and serenity, a feeling of acceptance because of his belief in Jesus and the Lord.

Harwell spent 42 of his 55 years as a major league broadcaster calling Detroit Tigers games—from 1960 to 2002. Before that, he aired games of the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants and Baltimore Orioles. He was the fifth announcer inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1981, but the first named while still active in play-by-play. Ernie “retired” when he was 84, but appeared several times as a guest announcer on various networks and stations after that.

Ernie said he had an operation in August for an obstructed bile duct, and doctors found a cancerous tumor. He, his family and doctors have decided against further surgery or other treatment. And, in typical Harwell style, he remains in good spirits, calm, and highly appreciative of the good wishes he is receiving from hundreds of his fans.

Having visited Ernie and Lulu, his wife of 68 years, at their home in Novi, Michigan in the spring of 2005, I can tell you that he has exercised regularly for many years, including sit-ups, using a treadmill, and lifting weights. In 55 seasons of announcing big league baseball, Ernie missed only two games……for his brother’s funeral in 1968, and for his induction into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame in 1989. From personal experience, I can attest to the fact that Lulu bakes tasty chocolate chip cookies. The Harwells have four children.

Harwell grew up in Atlanta, was a paperboy, and one of his customers was Margaret Mitchell, who wrote the novel Gone with the Wind. He loved baseball and became visiting batboy for the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern League when he was five. Ernie was tongue-tied from the age of three through eight, but his parents hired a speech therapist although they didn’t have much money.

A graduate of Emory University, Harwell was a sportswriter before he began announcing games for the Crackers in 1943. But then he went to the Marines for four years. In 1948, Ernie became the only baseball announcer ever traded for a player when Branch Rickey of the Dodgers dealt catcher Cliff Dapper to the Crackers in exchange for breaking Harwell’s broadcasting contract.

Ernie has had other talents outside broadcasting. An inventor, he holds a U. S. patent on a bottle-can opener. He has written popular music for years, and 66 of his songs have been recorded by various artists. Harwell has collaborated with Johnny Mercer, Sammy Fain, Jose Feliciano, and Mitch Ryder.

His 1955 essay “The Game for All America” is considered a classic of baseball literature, and Ernie has written several books and penned sports columns in newspapers.

Harwell was 43 when he became a born-again Christian in 1961 at a Billy Graham crusade in Florida during spring training, and later gave his testimony on a Graham television special. In 1985, Ernie was baptized in the Jordan River.

He always began the first spring training broadcast of each season with a reading from Song of Solomon 2: 11-12: “For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.” Harwell has long been involved with the Baseball Chapel, an evangelistic organization for professional ballplayers.

Five years ago, the Detroit Public Library dedicated a room to Ernie and Lulu which will house his collection of baseball memorabilia valued at more than two million dollars.

This is one of my favorite Ernie Harwell stories. In 2003, when he was 85, he signed a ten-year contract to be the spokesman for Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Michigan. The contract has an option for another ten years after that which Blue Cross has promised to extend. As Ernie says, ” I plan to honor my part of the deal……….or die trying.”

Ernie Harwell has given many people countless hours of enjoyment through his baseball broadcasts. May God bless him richly.