Albom play about Ernie Harwell premieres tonight in Detroit

By Cam Martin 

Mitch Albom, best-selling author of Five People You Meet in Heaven and one-time suspension recipient for writing creative fiction in the Detroit Free Press, has penned a play about the late Ernie Harwell, the long-time Detroit Tigers radio announcer who passed away in 2010. The play premieres Thursday at City Theater in Detroit.

Albom, a frequent guest on ESPN’s The Sports Reporters, told the Associated Press the play called “Ernie” was Harwell’s idea.

“When he died, I tried to write a play that would serve as a legacy,” said Albom, who also wrote the best-seller Tuesdays with Morrie. “I started it as a one-person show, then I realized Ernie had no angst, no inner demons, the kind of stuff you need for a one-person show. Ernie wasn’t Hamlet. I made it as a two-person show with a kid who got Ernie to basically broadcast his life with his memories about everything from Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth to the 1968 and 1984 World Series, which people will get to see.”

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Harwell called Tigers games from 1960 to 2002. He received the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981 and was honored by the Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 1989.

(Source: FoxNew.com)

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