Baseball lost one of the true elder statesmen Wednesday (May 4) but the Detroit community (way beyond just the Tigers) lost a dear Christian leader, brother and friend. Rather than trying to write something myself, I think Jeff Robinson hit a home run with this entry on the Biblical Manhood and Womanhood blog last September telling Ernie’s story. DKC

Dying Well – Lessons from a Baseball Legend
Jeff Robinson

I’ll never forget where I first heard a Christian speak cogently about the sovereignty of God. It wasn’t any of my theological heroes. It wasn’t J.I. Packer or John Piper or R.C. Sproul or John MacArthur or John Calvin or Jonathan Edwards. It wasn’t my seminary professors.

No, I first heard about God’s “absolute control of all events and all people” as the children’s catechism puts it, from Ernie Harwell, a legendary announcer of Major League Baseball games, a man so great at his craft, he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame in 1981.

His confidence in God came during a frustrating time in his brilliant career.

It was the early 90s and Harwell was being forced out by new leaders in the Tigers front office and an overzealous marketing director at the radio station for which he had labored for decades.

But, due largely to the overwhelming outrage by the sports-viewing public in Detroit and across the country, Harwell was retained and many of those behind the attempted ouster were themselves shown the door. I’ll never forget the godly Harwell’s response when asked if his Christian faith had been tested by the events.

“No, God is in charge of every sparrow that falls from the sky. If He wants me to continue on as announcer for the Tigers, I will. If He doesn’t, I can’t force my way back in. My life is completely in His hands and he always does what is right.”

Amen.

Harwell returned to the booth and stayed until retirement in 2002.

A native of Georgia, my own home state, Harwell became an American icon while announcing baseball games on radio and television for 55 seasons, including 42 for Detroit. Harwell also did games for the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles. Harwell is famous for the easy-going manner with which he announced games.

As a young baseball-mad boy with little else to do in rural north Georgia, I fell asleep many a summer night to the sound of Ernie’s soothing southern drawl emanating from my transistor radio. Millions of baseball fans can tell the same story.

Sadly, in an age when retired athletes typically serve in radio and television broadcasting booths, Harwell is among the last of a dying breed in baseball – an announcer who was so beloved that he was as much a part of the Detroit Tigers experience as the players themselves. So beloved was Harwell, a statue of him now sits outside Comerica Park, the Tigers’ new ballpark.

Last month, the 91-year-old radio broadcaster learned that he is dying of a cancerous tumor in his bile duct. God converted Ernie Harwell at a Billy Graham crusade in 1961 during spring training in Lakeland, Fla.

One of the founders of Baseball Chapel -a formal Lord’s Day chapel service for baseball players – Harwell is known and respected across baseball as a humble, unashamed disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now he is dying like a humble, unashamed follower of Christ. Doctors expect Harwell to live about six months, but he is clearly dying well.

When asked whether he was worried about dying, his answer was reminiscent of Paul’s attitude in Philippians 1. “If you worry, that’s like telling God that you don’t think he can handle things. It’s a slap in the face of God,” said Harwell. “”My confidence is in God. Long ago, I gave my life to him. My life is in his hands.”

Harwell and his wife Lulu have been married for 68 years and have seven grandchildren. When asked how he wants to spend his final months before the call to glory arrives, Harwell said he wants to do all he can to serve his wife with the time he has left.

This is how a Christian man dies well, living out Ephesians 5 to the end. Ernie Harwell, the announcer, is noted for his simple, yet ornate home run call – “It’s gone.”

Ernie Harwell the man is noted as a Christian who lives for the service of others to the glory of God. Many a budding announcer and young journalist have experienced his Christ-like kindness and his selfless focus. I met him briefly at the World Series one year and count it as one of the great moments of my former career as a newspaper journalist.

“I try to live my life the way [God] wants me to,” Harwell said in his biography, Ernie Harwell: My 60 Years in Baseball. “I try to be kind to people, no matter who they are. One thing I have done is I have tried to help young announcers. I’ve listened to tapes, talked to them about what they could do to improve or to find opportunities. It’s something I feel I have to pass along.”

“I’ve seen so many people in the public eye turn people off, and I decided I wasn’t going to be like that. Often, when someone meets me, it will be the only time. You could really hurt someone’s feelings. I try to live by the old golden rule.”

Ernie Harwell will be sorely missed in baseball and far beyond, but he has given us a godly man’s picture both in life and in death. May the Lord richly bless Ernie and Lulu in Ernie’s final days as a citizen of the city of man. Very soon, his faith will become sight and death will be swallowed up in victory. And of that, Ernie Harwell is abundantly confident.

This article first appeared on October 12, 2009 in the CBMW blog. The Aquila Report has asked for reprint permission; sure hope we get it! Source: https://www.cbmw.org/Blog/Posts/Dying-Well-Lessons-from-a-Baseball-Legend