Ernie Harwell

I stood there like the house beside the road,
watching it pass—the voice of Michigan.
How many summers spent with words bestowed
to the ears and hearts of kids and working men?
Thank you for being family all these years:
for spending time in our trampled grass,
for conversation over brats and beers,
for giving the sport your love and gracious class.
But baseball lives on due to countless nights
of Tigers games announced by the tongue-tied boy
from Georgia. Baseball lives through Gehrig’s address,
through Mays’ impressive catch, through sounds and sights
of epic matches driven home in joy.
You will endure within the game. God bless.