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Former voice of Tigers a hit in Holland

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Updated Aug 4, 2009 2:30 PM ET
     
 
HOLLAND -- Longtime Detroit Tigers Baseball announcer Ernie Harwell, 91, gets in two hours of exercises every day to help him get the most out of his senior years. "I want to be fit and healthy the day I die," said Harwell who worked for 55 years as a play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball, including 42 with the Detroit Tigers . Looking as spry as someone 30 years his junior, Harwell was a special guest speaker for the Holland Chamber of Commerce on July 23. "I started jumping rope in the 1960s, and now, I start my day with stretching exercises and jumping rope 300 times. Then, I go to the gym and work out on the elliptical machines and treadmills and finish up on the weight machines," Harwell said. Retired from broadcasting since 2002, Harwell's current job is to promote exercise and healthy living as a spokesman for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan. During his talk, Harwell liberally sprinkled anecdotes about Baseball players from Jackie Robinson to Tigers greats Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, AL Kaline and Norm Cash. "Norm wasn't the best example of healthy living. We'd be on the road and I'd be in the hotel restaurant having breakfast and Norm would be just getting in from the night before. Then, he'd go out and play a great game," Harwell said. Walking became a daily passion for Harwell when Tigers' manager Sparky Anderson invited him to go for a morning walk before the 1984 opening-day game at Minnesota. "From then on, whenever we were on a road game, Sparky and I would walk in the morning," Harwell said. Harwell and his wife Lulu, 90, walk each evening. "I like to tell seniors, 'Go take a hike. It's good for you,' " he said.
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