Coming back from a recent trip to Wisconsin, I flipped on the radio in hopes of catching a score from the Detroit Tigers game.

In a way, it was like taking a trip back to the distant past.

Long before Major League Baseball had its own network and there weren't scads of games on television, radio was the main source for baseball fans in this country.

The 1950s - when I listened to my first baseball game - were a much different time in this country.

Like today, politicians were dishonest, but at least you didn't have to hear about their indiscretions every waking hour of the day.

Athletes made an average of around $10,000 a year and didn't grouse about it. There were very few prima donnas.

And the local trout streams contained as many fish as you, um, could fit in your creel.

TV was still pretty much in its infancy - and thankfully minus the pure (sitcoms, reality shows, etc.) crap you see today.

As I recall it, it was a warm mid-July day in 1954 when I first took notice of a Tigers game on WHDF radio in Houghton.

The Tigers, who played in old Briggs Stadium back then, were playing the New York Yankees. Even though they were getting plastered by the famed Bronx Bombers, Tigers announcer Van Patrick made the game interesting.

The names of Al Kaline, Ray Boone, Bill Tuttle and Frank House SOUNDED good on the radio. The team lost a 13-8 game that day, but at least Patrick made it interesting to his listeners.

I was hooked after that, never missing a Tigers broadcast if I could help it.

About a year later, I began listening to Milwaukee Braves games. The signal from stations in Escanaba and Wausau, Wis. was crackling and often hard to pick up, but I became a big Braves' fans just the same.

Milwaukee had future Hall of Fame players like Henry Aaron, Eddie Matthews, Warren Spahn. But the Braves also had Joe Adcock, Johnny Logan, Lou Burdedtte, Del Crandall and Saginaw's own Bob Buhl.

Milwaukee, which also won a lot, also had a great announcer in Earl Gillespie. Like Patrick, he had the knack of making every play in a game sound interesting.

Ernie Harwell became the Detroit play-by-play man in 1960 and brought an even more unique style to the radio booth.

With his smooth southern voice and folksy way, Ernie turned into an instant icon.

His description of games was outstanding. Terms like "he stood there like the house beside the road and watched it go by," became classic lines.

And when he once said that "a gentleman from L'Anse caught that foul ball," he won over all Upper Peninsula fans.

I clearly recall listening to him and sidekick Ray Lane broadcast the 1968 championship season, even though I was working in Milwaukee at the time.

And two years later, Ernie's voice on the Armed Forces Network was comforting even as I sat in a faraway Army barracks. Not as good as sitting on the porch back home with a cold glass of lemonade, but pretty darn close.

Now, like everyone else, I watch the Tigers on the tube and try to put up with the tireless homer announcing of Mario Impemba and Rod Allen.

But every once in awhile, I'll tune in a game on the radio and imagine that Ernie Harwell is saying something like "it was a strike, (umpire) Nestor Chylak said so."