Funeral Saturday for Paul Carey, Voice of Detroit Tigers

• Get Patch’s daily newsletter and real-time news alerts.

ROCHESTER, MI – Paul Carey, whose authoritative, thundering voice announced Detroit Tigers baseball games on the radio for nearly 20 years, died at his Rochester home Tuesday night. He was 88.

He died of complications of obstructive pulmonary disease and heart disease, according to reports.

His wife of nearly 30 years, Nancy, told the Associated Press Carey died “very peacefully.” He had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and and heart disease, she said.

He was “the love of my life, and anybody that knew him was better off knowing him,” she said.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Rochester. Arrangements are being handled by Modetz Funeral Home, and visitation will be held from 2-8 p.m. Friday at the Silverbell Chapel at 100 East Silverbell Road in Orion Township.

Carey, who broadcast alongside Ernie Harwell from1973-1991, was behind the microphone when the Tigers last won the World Series in 1984.

Carey was “a consummate professional who had one of the most distinctive and classic broadcast voices,” the Tigers said in a statement.

The Tigers’ current play-by-play radio announcer, Dan Dickerson, told the Detroit Free Press that Carey “had a powerful voice that kind of sucked you into the radio.”

Former Free Press columnist Mike Downey once wrote that “if God had a voice, it would sound like Paul Carey.”

"The team of Ernie and Paul was, such a great team," said Dickerson, who grew up listening to the team. "I think the thing I took away from listening to those broadcasts, just the way they called a really good game.”

The chemistry between the two was fused by their differences, Carey told The Detroit News after Harwell died in 2010.

"Maybe one of the reasons we got along so well is that there was quite a difference in our personalities and approaches," he said at the time. "Ernie got up early and exercised early. I got up late as I could and exercised as little as I could.

"I'm a worrier. Ernie was not. He didn't fret. Again, maybe that's why we got along so well. We weren't finishing each other's sentences."

Carey began his radio career not as a sports announcer, but as a reporter during his early college career at Central Michigan University, and he never strayed far from that, caling games not as a showman, but with factual authority.

He later transferred to Michigan State University, where he graduated in 1950 after majoring in speech, radio and dramatics. He started his radio career at as part of the original announcing staff at WCEN in his hometown of Mount Pleasant, but was drafted into the Army in 1950.

He served during the Korean War with the Fourth Infantry Division, where he was a squad leader and sergeant in the weapons platoon.

After his discharge from the Army, he returned to WCEN in the fall of 1952, then moved on to WKNX in Saginaw for three years before landing at Detroit’s WJR in 1956, where he remained for 35 years.

During that time, he also produced for the Detroit Tigers Network before becoming a play-by-play announcer in 1973.

He accumulated a trophy case full of awards during his celebrated career, including Michigan Broadcaster of the Year, which he won six times.

He was elected to the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1992; received the Centennial Award from Central Michigan University in 199;, and also won the Lowell Thomas and Big Ed Awards, the Unsung Hero of Sport Award, the Ernie Harwell DSBA Lifetime Contribution Award. the Doc Fenkell Excellence in Media Award and the Dick Schaap Memorial Award.

Additionally, he was an honorary lifetime member of the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association and an honorary member of the Detroit Tigers Alumni Association.He was elected into the Detroit Catholic League Hall of Fame in 1995 and into the Basketball Coaches Association Hall in 1997.

"His passing is mourned by all he touched, thanks to his talent, profile and longevity; he did indeed touch countless sports souls," Trevor Thompson, the president of the Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association, said in a statement.

Besides his wife, Nancy, he is survived by a brother-in-law, Duane Wackerly, of Saginaw; and eight nieces and nephews.