Detroit Tigers Radio Dream Comes True After Drive Across State

DETROIT — Baseball fans in Detroit over several decades have dreamt of becoming the next Ernie Harwell. The legendary announcer was the voice of the Detroit Tigers from 1960-2002 and is immortalized with a statue of his likeness permanently on display at Comerica Park.

Among the Tigers fans who grew up listening to Harwell is Dan Hasty, now an announcer himself as the play-by-play voice for the Tigers' High-A affiliate West Michigan Whitecaps.

After several years in the business, Hasty's longtime dream of broadcasting a Tigers game played out Sunday, although what led him across the state to make it happen was certainly not planned.

Hasty was called Sunday morning and asked to call the game due to the Tigers' usual radio voice Dan Dickerson moving to the television booth for the team's home game against the Oakland Athletics, WDIV reported.

Getting the call at 11 a.m. on a game day wouldn't make it easy for Hasty, who lives in Grand Rapids, some 2 1/2 hours west of Detroit. He was also alone with his 8-month-old daughter and needed to find a babysitter in order to make it happy.

“We were about 4 1/2 hours away from first pitch,” Hasty told WDIV. “My wife — who is an emergency room physician assistant, so she’s been dealing with COVID-19 for a year over at the hospital — she was working. So, had to coordinate child care on the fly.”

He did, and arrived at Comerica just an hour and a half before first pitch.

“I had just enough (time) to write out a lineup card and go,” Hasty said. “It was unusual from the respect of there was no prep time. I didn’t have time to do all the research I wanted to do, but the good news was I had been prepping for what happened on Sunday for 20 years.”

The Tigers played in Oakland on Sunday, so Hasty called the game while watching on a monitor at the team's home ballpark. It's a practice that has become more commonplace during the coronavirus pandemic.

But it was still an unforgettable experience, even though Hasty had to go through hoops at the last minute to make happen.

“It was everything I could have ever wanted that experience to be,” he told WDIV.

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