European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 27, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday june 27, 19b7 the stars and stripes Page 23 commentary Ernie Harwell Man behind the Mike Ernie Harwell greets you Wilh the voice that brings you baseball on the radio at two in the morn ing. This time he s live at Tiger stadium. I Good id see you. How was your trip from Germany the same voice. The dignified combination of Southern and British that has described major league baseball since 1948, the Detroit tigers since 1960. The same broadcasting sound that rallied Harwel Linto the Hail of Fame in 1981. On tuesday s gorgeous summer night shortly be fore Harwell s tigers take on Toronto you finally see the Man who Clicks on that voice. He s 69, average height thin with a crinkled smile a Friendly As he sounds on the air. He makes you feel Good. Kind of like when you re lying by your radio in the Middle of a european night and he say this is Ernie Harwell bringing you Tiger baseball on armed forces Harwell is employed by the tigers and docs play by play for War radio in Detriot. You hear him in Europe when arts relays his broadcasts overseas. I realize the Guys get up Early or stay up late to listen he acknowledges you ask this world War ii Marine if he knows where his i listeners Are stationed. I have a general idea. We re probably going into Bangkok Germany and saudi Arabia. Every once in a while i la get a letter from Turkey or saudi you wonder whether Harwell changes his style when he knows arts is picking him up. No except for that greeting. I feel it s a touch of Bucky Fox Home when 1 broadcast the same Way. There Are probably gis from Saginaw and Kalamazoo Mich listening so i Don t you have Harwell s Book tuned to you plan to have him autograph in but first you ask about chapters. On the Hall of Fame did t deserve it. And to get in while Active was such a thrill. To get inducted with my family there meant More than if i were six feet on red Barber he dodger announcer Wilh whom Harwell worked in the late 1940s he a a perfectionist. The Point 1 tried to make in the Book was not that he was t a Nice Guy but that he was different off the air. On the air he was Corroone i la be a suck egg mule and thai sort of thing. Off the air he did t have much Lime to relax and enjoy on Russ Hodges the giant play by play Man whose Call of Bobby Thomson s 1951 Homer on radio is history while Harwell s to description was never taped Russ was a Tot More relaxed than did t worry he enjoyed the game. Red was a lol better As a craftsman. Russ was like a Guy in a bar telling you about on whether manager Sparky Anderson who Dou Bles As world series color Man for lbs radio asks Harwell for advice no. Sparky is hired to be Sparky Anderson. He s better off not listening to Harwell reveals that his favorite announcers of today Are the cubs Harry Caray the dodgers Vin Scully the twins Herb carnal and the rangers Mark Holt in s two hours to game time. When Harwell leaves his Tiger office he visits both clubhouses. He tapes an interview with Tiger first baseman Jarrell Evans for his pregame show. He visits the umpires. I know the umpires generally Beller than the players he says. By 7 15 p.m., Harwell and sidekick Paul Carey kick off the show. You watch and listen to Harwell from your left Field grandstand scat. Through binoculars you see Ernie talking to the Mike the first three innings. Through your radio you hear Carey Lake Over the Middle three innings then Harwell finishes Iho final three in the second inning you learn history fro Harwell in the Early Days of baseball catchers did t Wear masks. They wore rubber mouthpieces Tike while Carey Calls inc Middle three innings you see Harwell relax in the Booth and Monitor Oul of town scores. By 10 30 p.m., the game is Over. Toronto has held on for an 8-7 Victory. Some 38,000 disappointed fans file out. You Are fortunate to hear Harwell sign Oil. He tells you there s another game tomorrow. Softball s 100th year is cause for Celebration by Mario Fox Chicago a from its beginning 100 year Sago with a stick salting a boxing Glove softball has developed into a sport played by an estimated so Mil lion people in 75 countries. In s an easy game to play. It does t take Loo much Energy. And it s a time killer says Billy Carter brother Foex president Jimmy Carter and one time softball player in southwestern Georgia. To Toast the sports 100th anniversary inc Amateur softball association headquartered in Oklahoma City unveils a plaque monday to Mark the spot where the game was bom on Chicago s South Side. The sex Tirol brother u Only one of Many Ccle Bra ties who have enjoyed softball others include movie Star and producer Woody Allen actor George c. Scott Singer Barbara Mandrell and syndicated newspaper columnist Mike Royko. I m not playing any More too old says Royko 54. He started in the sport As a youngster because i did t want to break a leg playing Billy Carter once played for a league in Americus ga., and later pitched on the news Media team that played in Plains a when his brother was Al the Southern White House in the late 1970s. He also has retired from the game. I m too old to slide. And in lakes Roe too Long to get out of bed when 1 do slide said Carter so. Still very much in the softball spotlight however is Pitcher Kathy Arendsen who was once Able to strike out baseball slugger Reggie Jackson in his prime. In a one on one exhibition Jackson fanned three times in a Row in 1981 Al Syracuse . She can control the Ball at 96 Mph and do More with it than most major league pitchers says Billylu Nuner of the Amateur softball association. Arendsen 29, an assistant coach at Northwestern University in suburban Evanston and Pitcher for the perennial National Champion i to Brake Les of Strat Ford Conn since 1978, is proud of her individual accomplishments. They include 2,813 strikeouts in1,834 innings and an earned run average of 0.14. But the 6-foot-2 Pitcher gets her biggest kick out of winning for the Bra Peltcs with whom she has fashioned a 218-20 record in nine seasons. I Lave the Challenge pitching gives me. There s a lol of pressure but there s a lot of glory in winning says Arendsen. The average softball or plays the sport for a variety of reasons. Softball is a very social sport. In gels you outside says Penny warier 29, a systems Engineer Wilh ism who has played organized softball in new York and now Chicago. You re exercising but it s a group sport. Afterwards you go out and drink Beer and there Are slow or fast pitch leagues with All male All female or coed players leagues Are often sponsored by businesses or a Park District. Most regions play witha 12-Inch Ball but the Chicago speciality is the 16 inches. It was in 1887 at the Farragut Boathouse on Chi Cago s South Side where George Hancock an employee of the Chicago Board of Trade became the father of softball according to the sport s historians. Twenty friends alumni from Yale and Harvard gathered to await the results of the football game be tween us two schools. When the score came in Yale won 17-8 an overjoyed Yale supporter tossed a boxing Glove at a Harvard rooter but he saw the Glove coming and Bat led it Back with a stick say historians. Hancock went Home to develop a set of rules for an indoor game for Chicago s usually blustery Winter. In door baseball was played with a Large Mushy while Ball. Come Spring the game moved outdoors on Fields not big enough for baseball. By 1896, it. Lewis Rober of the Minneapolis fire department used the Gaine to keep his men i during Idle times called Kitten Ball Diamond Ball Twilight Ball Mushrall playground Ball and Oiher names the game spread nationwide. Seven innings instead of baseball s nine were played because of the game s popularity during Lime after dinner and before Sundown. The name softball the brainchild of Denver s Waller Hockanson was officially adopted As the name of the sport in 1932. Softball has Many records but the most amazing of All May be the Mark for longest game which belongs to20 students Al los Alamos june 20-24,19s6, two learns of 10 players each played a slow Pilch game for 100 hours and 390 innings according to the Guin Ness Book of world records. Pitburg Boss is Silwio Victor Plurel he been named to Roach the football tean. A picture of George Lawrence us ten member of the Buou Suff we mistakenly identified jul of him 11 yesterday s scripts. He Rel a the defensive Rood Tutor for the Continental saw Rel conference Iron last i
