Ernie Harwell, the long-time voice of the Tigers, will receive the Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award in Sports Broadcasting during WFUV Radio’s Spring Gala at Fordham University. The 92 year-old Hall of Fame broadcaster is the third recipient of the VSLA, named for the former alum and Dodger broadcast icon, joining inaugural honoree Vin Scully (2008) and Dick Enberg (2009).
In what is believed to be his last day with the team, Ernie Harwell, whose contract is not renewed by team management and WJR, waves goodbye to the fans and the crowd attending the season finale gives the ‘Voice of the Tigers’ for the past 32 years a long and loud standing ovation. The veteran broadcaster will return to Detroit in 1993, thanks to the warm invitation from new team owner Mike Ilitch, and will continue to do play-by-play until the end of the 2002 season.
At a press conference, Tiger management and WJR announce 1991 will be Ernie Harwell’s 32nd and final season in the broadcast booth. The dismissal of the Motor City’s popular play-by-play announcer starts a furor among fans, which includes a threatened boycott of Domino’s Pizza, a business of club owner Tom Monaghan, and the rise of the slogan, “Say It Ain’t So, Bo”, which appears on bumper stickers and T-shirts all over Detroit, referring to Bo Schembechler, the team president and former University of Michigan football coach.
Ernie Harwell, filling in for Red Barber, who is recovering from a bleeding ulcer, calls his first major league game as the Dodgers beat the Cubs at Ebbets Field, 5-4. To obtain the future Hall of Fame broadcaster, Brooklyn general manager Branch Rickey trades minor league catcher Cliff Daper to the Atlanta Crackers.