OT - Ernie Harwell: The Voice of the Turtle

Not mocking - just teasing.

And that was funny btw....you sir get an upvote for that witty retort (even if it was at my expense)

Thanks man, I really appreciate it. I know I typically come off as a HUGE dick around here, but normally I'm just trying ( and failing ) to be funny. I appreciate the MGoCommunity's support more than you could ever imagine. 

Just to be clear, we're not getting seperated or going through a divorce. We're a very happy couple. But holy shit the past never goes away. There is a trial involved if that helps. I probably shouldn't say anymore. 

But again thank you so much!

Dan Dickerson isn't bad at all (seriously, listen to Ed Farmer for the White Sox and you'll want to rip your cochlea out with a rusty spoon), but he's no Ernie. I don't think he gets enough credit, because the shoes that he's trying to fill are... well... unfillable.

I really like Pat Hughes (sp?) from the Cubs. In fact, I'm more impressed with him than I am Bob Uecker, who was great in Major League (Go Tribe!), but not really that notable otherwise IMO. Ron Santo was a broadcasting trainwreck, but the synergy between Pat and Ron (read: Pat mocking Ron and Ron being oblivious to it) was tremendous.

Dan Dickerson.  It's taken a while, but he's grown on me.  As much as I don't like listening to Mario Impemba, I still don't think I'll be turning the volume down on the TV and listening on the radio.  

Bo was more the scapegoat for Ernie's firing than the orchestrator.  If you listen to the Sparties, Bo was hired at the Tigers and the first thing he did in order to throw his weight around and make his mark was fire Ernie.  Nuh-uh.  First of all, Ernie's contracts were with WJR, so Bo couldn't even have unilaterally done it without their support.

Second, the firing was in the works before Bo even got there.  There had been talk of that being his last contract, which was up in 1990, and then Ernie was given one last one-year contract, 1991, with the now-public understanding that it would be his last.  Bo sort of put a public face on the firing because he was in the pink-slip meeting with Ernie, went along with the management's decision, and nobody other than Tom Monaghan was even remotely recognizable to the public.

Here's an MVictors post on the subject with links, including a Bacon one:

http://mvictors.com/?p=6998

Ernie's best and longest-running partner with the Tigers was Paul Carey. Booming baritone, understated delivery, lots of dead air so you could hear the hot dog barkers and the hecklers, usually took the middle three innings.

Dan Dickerson and Jim Price are not on Ernie's level, but who is? Dickerson and Price are not bad at all, though. I like sitting back on an afternoon day, listening to those two call the action. 

In fact, I am sitting here right now listening to the Tigers game on WXYT through MLB.com. Good way to spend an afternoon.

Miller is awful, only a step above the guy he replaced, Mark Champion, who was such a homer that he would get near-suicidal describing the Lions. Which, who could blame him? For the life of me I can't figure out how the Lions can be so inept--it has to be a reflection on the Fords. It's not money...they pay for players and they built a beautiful stadium on their own dime, right downtown where it needed to be.

Born in 89, so I can't remember much from Martyn (not that I could remember Kell), but yeah, forgot about him. Long career with the Wings. I didn't include any UM guys, but Ufer is obviously as big as they come when it comes to the states' broadcasting legends. At least for UM fans :)

The bad and the ugly:  Rick Rizz and Bob Rathbun, who made up broadcast team that had the task of following the beloved Ernie.  What did they last for, maybe a year or two?  Rizz probably would have been OK in time, but was hated mostly because of the circumstances of Ernie's "firing" and also somewhat because he tended to be a lot more "over-the-top" in his broadcast style following the soothing Georgia drawl of Ernie.  Rathbun, though, was completely unlistenable with his fake non-stop "rah-rah" style of color and play-by-play duties.  UGH!

The good:  Jerry Hanlon---did a lot of color work for Michigan broadcasts, it must have been immediately after he retired from coaching back in the 90's for several years.  I loved his perspective and honesty in the booth---he had no fear of being critical when it was needed and did a great job of describing the technicalities of line play to the listeners at home or listening in the stands.

The good (part 2): Jim Northrup.  Did TV for several years, first briefly on the regular broadcasts with George Kell and Al Kaline, and then for several years on PASS Sports, the  Sports-Cable network that did Tigers games that were not on the traditional over-the-air Tiger TV Network.  Northrup's style was much like that of Hanlon (as I posted above), very honest and enlightening and not at all afraid of being critical. Reportedly, that "critical" stuff was looked at by Tiger top brass as too abrasive, it didn't sit well with ownership and the front office (I think the GM back then was Jim Campbell), and as I recall reading, eventually Northrup was let go of as a result of PASS being pushed into that decision by the Tigers front office.

Definitely did it at the start of every spring training opener. The interwebs confirm it.