Patrick Reusse: Generations of Twins fans lose a distinctive voice of summer

There was nothing more important in the lives of baseball play-by-play broadcasters in the '40s, '50s and into the '60s than beer.

"Most of us worked for the beer sponsor," Ernie Harwell said. "And if the beer changed, you had to leave."

Harwell became a big-league announcer with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948. This occurred after Branch Rickey, the Dodgers general man- ager, traded catcher Cliff Dapper to the Atlanta Crackers for the rights to Ernie's voice.

He worked through 1949 with the Dodgers, then stayed in New York to do play-by-play for the Giants from 1950 to '53.

The St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles for the 1954 season. Harwell was hired to team with Chuck Thompson on the broadcasts.

"Chuck was working for National Beer, and in [1957] the Orioles' rights switched to Gunther," Harwell said. "That meant Chuck was out, and that's when Gunther hired Herb Carneal."

There had to be a distinctive Southern lilt in the Orioles' booth for the next four summers, with Harwell from Atlanta and Carneal from Richmond, Va.

The Detroit Tigers changed beer sponsors in 1960, and Harwell was hired to replace Van Patrick. Ernie was 84 when he retired as the Tigers' announcer in 2002.

Carneal was caught up in the beer maneuvers in 1962. Gunther was losing the rights to the Orioles. The Twins needed a replacement for Bob Wolff, who decided to go back to Washington, D.C., after one year in Minnesota.

Hamm's hired Carneal and teamed him with Ray Scott. Throw in Halsey Hall and, from 1962 through Scott's departure after the 1966 season, this new team out here on the prairie had an announcing crew to envy.

Carneal died at 83 on Sunday morning. Harwell was notified in a phone call from Terri, Herb's daughter.

"We go back to a time when an announcing team was two people doing the entire schedule," Harwell said. "You needed a great partner in that situation. Herb was a great partner, and we remained loyal friends through the years.

"We would always have dinner together when we were in the other person's town. People might not know this, but Herb was a very impressive knife-and-fork man. When he started eating, I would put my napkin down and say, 'I can't compete with you in this area, Mr. Carneal.' "

The Tigers replaced Harwell as their radio voice in 1991. It was a decision made by Bo Schembechler, the Michigan football coaching legend turned Tigers president.

The public outcry was such that owner Mike Ilitch brought back Harwell in 1993. He quit on his own terms 10 seasons later. Ernie was asked what would keep play-by-play men -- keep him and Carneal -- in the booth into their 80s.

"It starts with loving your job," Harwell said. "So, as long as you can do it, and nobody's throwing rocks at you, why not?

"I suppose you could just go home and do nothing, but that didn't appeal to me, and obviously not to Herb."

Harwell is 89 and in good health. He knew of Carneal's health problems ("We talked regularly," he said) but the news of his friend's death still came as a shock.

"There aren't many left -- announcers still active who are a big part of a ballclub's identity," Harwell said. "Herb was that person in Minnesota -- the voice you heard and knew you were listening to the Twins."

All generations of Twins fans have known that. We also knew that with Herbie, we were not going to get great bursts of elation in victory, nor overwhelming anguish when things went against the Twins.

Carneal would let you know that a Twins drive had a chance to go out, and he would raise the voice a bit when the ball cleared a fence, but he left the happy screams to us -- in our car on a wet spring night, in our backyard on a summer Sunday.

And when a potential out for an opponent turned into a base runner, Herbie might say, "Boy, you would like to see that play made," and then we knew one of our Twins had butchered a ball like a chicken on a June bug.

What Herb Carneal did was describe precisely what was occurring in front of him and allow us to react. When you consider hysterical play-by-play is now often the norm, Herbie deserves lasting admiration for the trust he placed in all of us.

Patrick Reusse can be heard weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP at 6:45 and 7:45 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. • preusse@startribune.com

Herb

Carneal

1923-2007