Immediately after he awakes Friday on his 90th birthday, Ernie Harwell plans to do a series of exercises.
First, he will do 50 whirling dervishes -- a stretching maneuver in which he fully extends his arms and alternately turns his upper body to the left and right as fast as he can.
Then he will do about 25 lunges and 25 deep squats.
Then he will jump rope for about 300 repetitions. "Or maybe about 30 more, to figure I counted wrong -- for good measure, as they say," Ernie says.
Then he will get on his back and pull his knees to his chest, then do about 50 sit-ups, then stretch his back.
After that, he will do deep breathing and -- still on his back -- pull his knees to his chin several times. This won't be a onetime demonstration of feisty fitness, meant to show himself just what he can do on his 90th birthday. He does this series of exercises to start every day.
Mr. Harwell's wikipedia page is here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Harwell
For me, the two most memorable broadcasting moments were Ernie Harwell's last regular season game in 2002 and the two innings he did on radio in 2006 for the Tigers - Yankees Division series. He was a lucky charm.
