Best wishes to Ernie Harwell

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You don’t have to be from Detroit to appreciate the work of Ernie Harwell, the Hall of Fame broadcaster who spent 55 years behind the microphone and was the voice of baseball for thousands of people in the Midwest and around the country.

Harwell, who is best known for the 42 seasons he spent broadcastiing Tigers games but also spent a season doing some work with the Angels in 1992, told the Detroit Free Press this week that he has inoperable cancer of the bile duct and that he has refused chemotherapy or other treatment. It’s remarkable that he was able to joke about his predicament, but the 91-year-old Georgia native is as classy now as he has always been.

His is one of those distinct, distinguished voices you never forget -- like the voice and easy manner of Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, who owes his 60-season affiliation with the Dodgers to Harwell.

Harwell was part of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ broadcast team in 1948 and 1949 before he switched over to work for the New York Giants. His departure left an opening for Scully, who’s still entrenched in the booth as he approaches his 82nd birthday.

Scully didn’t want to say much about Harwell on Friday but said he had spoken to someone close to Harwell recently. ‘He’s in God’s hands,’ Scully said. ‘That’s the best way to put it.’

-- Helene Elliott