Harwell close to radio return

He would become Tigers' play-by-play voice on WJR next season, replacing Beckmann

Dale G. Young / The Detroit News Hall of Famer Ernie Harwell waves to the crowd during his final broadcast at Tiger Stadium in 1991.

By Lynn Henning / The Detroit News

    DETROIT -- Ernie Harwell, whose dismissal as Tigers radio announcer eight years ago led to an extraordinary uproar, is on the verge of returning as the team's radio play-by-play voice for the 1999 and 2000 seasons.
    Harwell, who will turn 81 on Jan. 25, would replace Frank Beckmann. Under the proposed arrangement, Beckmann would assume Harwell's old duties on the Tigers' television network, WKBD / UPN 50. Beckmann also would work morning sports on WJR 760 and will fill in as a guest host when WJR daytime personalities go on vacation.
    The move was set in motion by Beckmann, who, after four seasons as the Tigers' main play-by-play announcer, wanted more time with his family and a less demanding travel schedule.
    Barring any breakdown because of salary haggles, the switch in roles is expected to be finalized as soon as the week of Nov. 30, after Tigers executives John McHale and Dave Glazier return from vacations.
    Gary Spicer, a Grosse Pointe attorney who represents Harwell, said Friday: "Ernie is not interested in being involved in any controversy here. He has merely been contacted about the possibility of going back to the radio booth, and if that is something the Tigers and WJR want, he would welcome that opportunity."
    "Whatever they (the Tigers) want me to do will suit me fine," Harwell said Friday from his Farmington Hills home.
    Harwell said he wasn't concerned, even at age 81, about returning to a 162-game broadcast schedule.
    "It doesn't bother me at all," said Harwell, who evolved into a baseball broadcast icon as the Tigers' play-by-play man from 1960-91.
    "I've done it all my life," he said. "A lot of people don't like to travel, but it's never bothered me at all."
    McHale, the Tigers' president and chief executive officer, was reluctant to confirm the broadcast moves, in deference to an official announcement by Beckmann and WJR. But he would not dispute that a Harwell-Beckmann switch is nearing completion.
    "Obviously, when Frank indicated to us that he was interested in exploring the possibility of a move, we tried to do some thinking on what circumstances would require if he decided to go that way," McHale said Friday from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, where he was about to leave for his vacation.
    Beckmann would not comment when reached Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, where he was broadcasting the Michigan-Ohio State football game. But he confirmed last month that he was considering a move away from the Tigers' radio booth and its eight-months-a-year grind. Beckmann has been a WJR staffer since 1972, and was sports director from 1979 until he took the Tigers job in 1994.
    For the past month, he and WJR have been working out an arrangement on future roles, talks that ultimately led to discussions with the Tigers on a radio-TV switch for Beckmann and Harwell.
    Harwell's return as the Tigers' radio play-by-play man would represent an astonishing full-circle journey that was disrupted in December 1990, when the Tigers and WJR announced that the 1991 season would be Harwell's last as play-by-play announcer.
    The decision to oust Harwell led to spectacular controversy, as well as to ongoing resentment from a baseball audience that had come to view Harwell as something of a broadcast demigod.
    The poison seemed to compound as the new broadcast team -- Rick Rizzs and Bob Rathbun -- built neither a niche nor any real comfort with the Tigers' radio audience.
    In an attempt to win back fans and improve the climate within the play-by-play booth, Tigers owner Mike Ilitch brought Harwell back as a third announcer in 1994.
    Tensions within the booth only increased as dissatisfaction with Rizzs and Rathbun mounted. They were fired at the end of the '94 season and replaced by Beckmann and Lary Sorensen.
    It also was in 1994 that Harwell joined the Tigers' cable network, PASS, as a play-by-play voice. Harwell handled TV assignments that season by working only three innings on radio games. He has been in the Tigers' TV booth ever since, working for UPN 50 and FOX Sports Detroit, which succeeded PASS.
    In 1999, Harwell will celebrate his 60th year in broadcasting. A native of Georgia, he began his career in 1940 as a nightly sports commentator on Atlanta station WSB.
    In 1948, he began his career as a major-league broadcaster when he was named play-by-play voice for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Harwell was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, when he became the fourth man to win the Ford C. Frick award for his baseball broadcast achievements.
    It is expected that the remainder of the Tigers' broadcast lineup will remain the same. Jim Price will join Harwell on WJR broadcasts and would likely do three innings of play by play in the fashion of Harwell's former radio partner, Paul Carey.
    "Ideally, yeah, that's the way we would like it," said Glazier, the Tigers' vice-president of business relations, who emphasized that none of the proposed moves can be made until WJR and Beckmann settle their own issues. "And I think that's the way Ernie would like it."
    Al Kaline will continue as analyst on the UPN 50 telecasts. The moves would not affect the FOX Sports Detroit team of Josh Lewin and Kirk Gibson.
    All parties agree that a major advantage to bringing Harwell back for the 1999 and 2000 seasons is the team's move from Tiger Stadium to a downtown ballpark scheduled to open in 2000.
    "I've seen it happen in other cities and it's going to be a big stimulus," Harwell said.
    "The thought was that Ernie would play an active role in the final year of Tiger Stadium, and a major role in the new stadium," Spicer said. "It's a great opportunity for the city of Detroit to have Ernie chronicle these very important changes."
   
    Leave a message for Lynn Henning at (313) 222-2472.

Copyright 1998, The Detroit News

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