mitch albom

Ernie Harwell’s Michigan

Ernie Harwell said, “In my almost 92 years on this earth the Good Lord has blessed me with a great journey. The blessed part of that journey is it’s going to end right here in Michigan.”

Wow.  Ernie Harwell has been described using words like “lovely”, “angelic”, and “beloved.” One of the most beloved men in sports history considers association with our state a blessing.  At a time when Michigan is being beat up, residency is declining, and our neighborhoods are facing downsizing, Ernie’s words are a welcome sentiment. At a time when Flint and Detroit are the focus of unflattering headlines and headlining negative statistics, we get to claim the voice and heart of baseball as our very own. And he was proud of it. Does that mean we’re not so bad afterall?

Yes.

I am not denying that we have some real serious issues here in Flint, or saying  that we shouldn’t feel bad about them. But all the bad press and negativity in general, I believe, takes a negative toll on us as individuals and as communities. Look, as people we are already suffering and struggling with a toe in the door of feeling worthless due to our own issues with job, finances, home, etc. So when we hear the commentary about the mess we live in that comes from across the country and from within our own borders, it is easy to be pushed right through that door and become locked up in our own den of negativity.  No good change can come from within those walls.

You want to hear something odd? I don’t get it. I don’t feel like I live in this desperate location that is our nation’s punchline. Maybe it’s like a kid who is poor but doesn’t realize it because he thinks everyone goes to bed hungry.  I know there’s pain. But I drive through the cultural area in the spring and summer and see beauty in the architecture and landscape all around me. I am infected by the festive energy at the Farmer’s Market. I go to the Art Fair in June and visit with artists and walk through FIA and am overwhelmed by talent and creativity and hope. I admit that many days are met with struggles that take me down if I let them. But when I look around at what is available to me and the efforts of the people around me  – sometimes I am bold enough to think not about how pitiful we are, as the news tells us every day, but how GREAT the rest of the country must be if everyplace else goes up from here.

My point is, we’re tough, Flint Stones.  We’re making it in a place where other, more sissy types, could never imagine living. Maybe the odds really are stacked against us and nobody expects us to succeed as individuals, as communities, as cities… but you know – the odds were also stacked against a young boy born 92 years ago with a tongue tying speech impediment who went on to become the most influential baseball announcer of all time.

In a complicated world, in complicated times,  Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully was able to sum Ernie Harwell up very simply.  He said that he cared for people and he loved baseball.  Everybody loves something don’t they? What a beautiful and fool proof formula for success – focus on what you love and enjoy while caring for every person you encounter. If I was surrounded by people who lived according to that credo, I couldn’t be convinced that there was any better “place” to be.

I’m not a big sports fan. Tiger Baseball & Wolverine Football is the extent of my interest. I don’t even watch baseball much anymore because the timing just doesn’t work. But my childhood experiences spent watching with my Dad or just hearing the crack of  the bat and Ernie Harwell’s voice in the background have ingrained in me these beautiful images and warm feelings that awaken at the mere sound of a game on tv today.  And even though I’m not much of a sports fan I am a Mitch Albom fan. His Farewell to Ernie Harwell makes it very plain that I am not the only one who will carry those warm fuzzy memories forever.