Thursday, May 6, 2010

Theater Of The Mind

One of my favorite sports heroes Ernie Harwell, has past. Ernie was the voice of Tiger baseball.

I have such a profound sense of sadness even though I have not attended or streamed a broadcast of the Detroit Tigers in many moons.  My introduction to baseball attributable to the magic of AM radio.

As a ten year-old Mideastern mutt of a tom boy my window to the world was my mono ear plug. A life-line to the world loomed just after dark as many local radio stations powered down, and the clear booming 50,000 w channel big stick Am stations came booming into my bedroom and transporting me to another place and space. WJR was the "local" station over 400 miles away and home to the Detroit Tigers and the voice of Ernie Harwell. Imprints from big city powerhouse stations like WGN  and WLS to the south west in Chicago, KMOX mixed jazz and baseball from St.Louis where even the call letters were exotically spelled with K's, being west of the Mississippi.

Connected to a tiny transistor radio that I hid under my pillow, that plug of a mono ear piece opened my world and helped focus my sights on the greener grass of the city, any city. Theater of the mind.

Twelve years later I found myself sitting in a posh mahogany board room in the Fisher Building home to WJR-760.
Sports autographs and smiling athletes adorned the walls of the GM's offices at WJR. Pitching my love of radio, pitching for a job, I shared the story of my beloved transistor radio whispering baseball games into my ear on sultry summer evenings. Many a bedtime came and went while the last batters made the final push for runs. Theater of the mind: the lost art of A.M radio.

Later that same year I spent time with a then newbie superstar from the Japanese leagues, Cecil Fielder. I drank iced tea in the heat of the dugout, hobnobbing with Ernie Harwell himself at a WJR fantasy camp in Lake land Florida. He told me to be careful in the sun, my freckles might burn. Fantasy Camp  was a day spent with deep pocketed advertising agencies and clients flown down to that sleepy Orlando swamp of a suburb.

Fantasy baseball camp cost big bucks, and the wait list was always longer that the open slots. Many a middle-aged man longed to sport a real Tigers uniform, hang with Allan Trammel and swing bats with the old timers who also tagged along for added color. Denny McClain made a brief, but ham fisted appearance shunning autographs.

Harwell was the star  even in the heat of the day, making friends with everyone. Refilling Iced tea glasses.

Radio has always been my favorite medium. Nothing can fill the shoes of radio as the backdrop for quintessential summertime afternoons. Listening to Ernie Harwell spew factoids about Americas' sport always left me with walk around knowledge that I could apply like currency to real-life boys club sports radio, and for that I thank him.