Ernie Harwell, the legendary radio voice of the Detroit Tigers, has been diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Ernie is 91, a beloved figure, and with good reason.

I’ve never met someone who takes a more genuine interest in people, who is more positively upbeat at all times than Ernie. I don’t recall the day I met Ernie, but I remember him seeking me out whenever he spotted me in a dugout or around the batting cage before a game.

I was amazed Ernie had any idea who I was. I wrote for a national baseball publication for seven years, which accounts for less than 15 percent of his broadcasting career. For a while, I thought maybe he read my work and perhaps he did.

More likely, he was just greeting me the way he greets everyone. Think about that. How often do we meet someone and immediately forget the name, if it even registered in the first place? Or we fail to acknowledge them the next time we seem them months or years later, fearful that they won’t recognize us? I’m guessing Ernie has never done that, even though he’s no doubt come in contact with tens of thousands of people.

After leaving that baseball publication at the end of 1998, I ran into Ernie only about once a year, usually during spring training. Before I spotted him, I’d inevitably hear that voice greeting me.

I admire Ernie Harwell for many reasons: his upbeat personality, career longevity, writing, lengthy marriage, and legendary devotion to working out and taking care of himself. Mostly, though, I admire him for being the ultimate people person.

I imagine he’s facing cancer with the same grace and optimism with which he approaches everything. Here’s wishing him all the best.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 5th, 2009 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Sports Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.