Former Detroit Tigers' broadcaster Paul Carey has died at the age of 88. Carey is best known as Ernie Harwell's broadcast partner, working Tigers' games for 19 seasons, including the team's last World Championship in 1984.
Carey replaced Ray Lane in the broadcast booth for WJR radio starting in 1973, and worked the middle fourth, fifth and sixth innings through the 1991 season. He was born in Mount Clemens, attended Central Michigan and then Michigan State University, and had worked 17 years as a sportscaster around Michigan, including broadcasting the Detroit Pistons, before hooking up with Harwell to work Tigers' games.
When Carey started with the Tigers, fans were fortunate to get one or two televised Tigers' games each week. Radio was the main connection to the team, and Carey's deep, soothing voice paired well with Harwell to form a class act that carried ball games all around Michigan and the Midwest. Fans may recall when Carey made the call for Al Kaline's 3,000th hit, and Cecil Fielder's 50th home run.
Carey doubled as the Tigers' broadcast engineer for most of his time doing games, and he would announce the scores from games around the major leagues on a regular basis with the "Paul Carey Scoreboard Show."
Carey speaks of his partnership with Harwell in this segment on YouTube and what it was like to work with the Hall of Fame announcer. Tom Gage, whose career with the Detroit News spanned Carey's tenure with the Tigers on WJR, wrote this update on Carey's failing health just before the 2015 season.
Paul Carey will always be remembered as Ernie Harwell's broadcast partner, but he was a fine broadcaster in his own right. When Ernie rested for the middle innings of each game, Carey brought Tigers' baseball to the Detroit faithful and he didn't miss a beat.
Here's a video of Carey talking about his former broadcast partner: