Ernie Harwell, the long time announcer for the Detroit Tigers, died yesterday at the age of 92.

All kinds of media are running tributes to him, and Ballbug's Ernie Harwell coverage is a quick link to many of them. Long gone, never forgotten: Tributes to Ernie Harwell is AnnArbor.com's collection.

For today's link roundup, I thought I'd cover a few things that other folks would be likely to miss, like the location of Harwell's baseball card collection, a 2002 NPR interview, and the batting average of the catcher who he was traded for in 1948. Baseball is an endless source of detailed memories of small events, and Ernie Harwell was in the middle of 20th century baseball.

Ernie Harwell Sports Collection, Detroit Public Library

The Ernie Harwell Sports Collection is held at the Detroit Public Library as part of the Burton Historical Collection. Harwell started donating books, team annuals, media guides, programs, scorecards, baseball cards, clippings, photographs, video and audio tapes to the library in 1966. An exhibit area called “The Lulu and Ernie Harwell Room” is located in the Main Library, 5201 Woodward Ave., in Detroit. Access to the full collection for researchers is by appointment.

2002 NPR tribute, Don Gonyea

In 2002, lifelong Tigers fan (and NPR White House Correspondent) Don Gonyea looked back at Harwell's history-making career for National Public Radio:

"Harwell's style, Gonyea says, is to "keep it simple. He's not afraid to sit silently at the mic for 10 or 15 seconds, letting the game breathe a bit, as the sounds of the ballpark around him fill the airwaves. And he says you can't get overly excited -- you have to save it for when something really exciting happens."

Two for the price of one

Detroit Tiger shortstop Alan Trammell and second baseman Lou Whitaker played 1,918 games together for the Tigers from the end of the 1977 season to 1995. Sports Illustrated did a feature on them in 1983. Ernie Harwell called most of these games - I looked but wasn't able to find a recording of him making the call for this play, which was announced as "two for the price of one."

1981 Baseball Hall of Fame

Listen to Ernie Harwell's speech on his 1981 induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Baseball Almanac has the full text:

"I'm very proud of this award, but I'm even more proud of my family. You know the life and times of Ernie Harwell could be capsuled I think in two famous quotations, one from a left handed, the New York Yankee pitcher and the other one from a right handed English poet. The Yankee pitcher, Lefty Gomez, once said, "I'd rather be lucky than good. " And the poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, once wrote in his epic poem Ulysses, "I am a part of all that I have met." Well, I know that I'm a lot luckier than I'm good. I've been lucky to broadcast some great events and to broadcast the exploits of some great players."

1968 Detroit Tigers World Series

This collection of Ernie Harwell clips from the 1968 World Series is from Year of the Tiger 1968, originally issued on a long-playing vinyl record and reissued on compact disc. A copy of the vinyl LP sold for $19.68 on eBay recently.

1948 trade for catcher Cliff Dapper

In 1948, Harwell entered baseball as an announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The account from his induction into the Hall of Fame:

"Earl Mann, President of the Atlanta Crackers, agreed to let him go to Brooklyn if Branch Rickey would send Montreal catcher Cliff Dapper to Atlanta to manage the club."

Dapper played eight games for Brooklyn in 1942 during World War II, with eight hits in 17 at-bats (a .471 batting average), including a home run and nine runs batted in. He was sent back down to the minors and was drafted into the service, serving in the South Pacific. After the war he returned to minor league baseball as a player and manager.

The Cliff Dapper entry introduced me to the Baseball Reference wiki. The Baseball in Wartime account of his career also gives an account of his career, and Baseball Almanac has a very short account of his statistics.

A set of fan photos from Ernie Harwell Day in 2002 shows the scene when Ernie and Cliff met each other for the first time.

Edward Vielmetti listens to baseball games on AM radio for AnnArbor.com. Contact him at edwardvielmetti@annarbor.com.