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thedrifter
04-19-09, 07:23 AM
April 19, 2009
Tigers legend Ernie Harwell answers questions from fans

BY ERNIE HARWELL
FREE PRESS BASEBALL WRITER

Your column last week marked your 19th straight year with the Free Press. What was your first job as a writer?

It was with the Sporting News. I was in high school in Atlanta in 1934. I wrote the editor of the Sporting News suggesting he hire me as his Atlanta correspondent. I had never written anything before, and there was no real reason for him to use me. Not knowing I was only 16 years old, he gave me the job. I continued to write for the Sporting News up until the mid-1960s.

Did you write for your school paper?

Yes, but that was after the Sporting News job. I wrote a column for the Boys High School Tatler -- some name for a paper. At Emory University, I was sports editor and wrote a gossip column for the Emory Wheel. In my senior year, I became the paper's editor.

Didn't you also work for the Atlanta Constitution?

I did, for six years while going to high school and college. My main job was editing copy and writing headlines and doing whatever no one else wanted to do. I covered tennis, swimming and golf. They paid me what I was worth -- nothing -- my first year. Later, I got a dollar a day, working on weekends or subbing for guys on vacation. Our sports editor and my mentor was Ralph McGill, who became editor and publisher of the paper and won a Pulitzer Prize for his stand on integration.

Why didn't you have a career in newspaper work?

I wanted to, but couldn't find a job on a newspaper. There were no openings at the Constitution or anywhere else. I took an audition at WSB, a 50,000-watt station in Atlanta, got lucky and landed the job. That was May 1940. Except for four years in the U.S. Marines, I've been in radio every since.

But you never gave up your writing, did you?

No, I didn't. In the Marines, I augmented my $78-a-month salary by freelancing. In 1943, I sold an article to the Free Press about Paul Richards, the Atlanta Crackers manager, returning to the big leagues as a catcher. I also wrote a Saturday Evening Post article on Ty Cobb and sold pieces to Esquire, Reader's Digest, Parade and other publications. I was sports editor of Leatherneck, the Marine magazine, and one of their overseas correspondents. Now I'm just a Free Press man.

Have a question for ERNIE HARWELL? Send it by mail to Ernie Harwell, Detroit Free Press, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit 48226, or by e-mail to sportsletters@freepress.com with "Ask Ernie" in the subject line. Order Ernie's four-CD audio scrapbook and his three Free Press books -- "Stories From My Life in Baseball," "Life After Baseball" and "Breaking 90" -- for $44.95 at www.freep.com/bookstore or call 800-245-5082.

Ellie