Wayne State University has unveiled a $2.3 million baseball facility to honor a legendary Detroit broadcaster.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday declared the grand opening of Harwell Field on the university's athletic campus. The brand new facility honors longtime Tigers announcer Ernie Harwell, who died in 2010.
Wayne State announced the project in 2013 after university athletic director Rob Fournier contacted Harwell's longtime friend and attorney Gary Spicer.
The privately funded facility features a replica of the rotunda of Ebbets Field, where Harwell began his broadcasting career with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Harwell was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and National Sportscaster Hall of Fame in 1989 and the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1998.
The facility is the first of a multi-phase project that eventually includes expanded grandstands and a press box.
