Growing up in the Detroit area and following Tiger baseball, fans were blessed with the announcing skills of two fine Southern gentlemen, Ernie Harwell and George Kell. And while Ernie might have been the soundtrack of our summers from 1960 to 2002, that shouldn’t take away from the skills of George Kell. Thoughtful, knowledgeable, and of seemingly infinite good humor (especially when the team was losing, as it often was), George Kell never let himself get in the way of the game. Teamed with Al Kaline, their low-key demeanor belied skills learned on ballfields for decades.
It’s a tribute to George (and to Ernie a little) that a vast majority of us Michiganders will put on a southern drawl when we ask, “How ’bout them Tahgers?” This might make the state seem more southern than it really is (and it’s still pretty southern, with all the transplanted Tennesseans and Kentuckians who came to work in the plants after WWII). When games got exciting, his baritone voice got a curl in it that raised the hairs on the back of your neck, seemingly out of nowhere.
You don’t appreciate the great ones until they move on and are replaced. And George Kell was one of the great ones.
The Detroit Free Press tribute to him is here.