FanHouse Ernie Harwell

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
The names Hal McCoy and Ernie Harwell.

Both were honored at ballparks on Wednesday, and their absence from the game will be felt by fans in Cincinnati and Detroit.

Harwell, the long-time Tigers radio announcer, has inoperable, terminal cancer. So the team chose Wednesday night to honor him at Comerica Park, and after a video tribute in the third inning, he thanked the fans:

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Bob Prince. Jack Brickhouse. Harry Caray. Jack Buck.

Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau -- you know, "from beautiful and lovely Wrigley Field in Chicago ," as Lloyd used to gush before every home game.

No offense to the others, but in many ways, Ernie Harwell was the best of them all when chatting about baseball for hours over the airways as the years became decades. He was knowledgeable. He was poetic. Mostly, he was highly addictive. He spent 42 seasons using his southern drawl to make "Tighas" famous around Detroit and wherever the 50,000 watts of WJR 760 AM shipped his words.

Sad news from Detroit today as legendary Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell has been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his bile duct. The 91-year old Harwell has declined surgery or treatment and the cancer will likely be terminal for the Hall of Famer.

For his part, Harwell is taking things in stride, saying that he's OK with it whether he's got a year or less left and referring to the cancer as his "next adventure." Tiger fans, for whom Harwell called baseball games for 42 years, are understandably a little shaken by the news. Some of their reactions are after the jump.