Death of "The Voice of the Phillies"

When I was growing up the voice of the Phillies was By Saam, longtime Philadelphia Broadcaster who teamed with Bill Campbell and Richie Ashburn to bring Phillies games to life on the radio, and occasionally on TV. The three of them worked all the games with Richie doing Color on TV Broadcasts on Sundays, and the other two rotating in out of the TV and Radio booths every couple of innings as the play-by-play men.

As a kid, to me this was the way it always was and always would be.

Until 1971.

That was the year, a young broadcaster who had spent 6 years with the Houston Astros became the 3rd man in the booth replacing veteran Bill Campbell.

His name--Harry Kalas.

For the next 38 years Harry would broadcast Phillies games becoming the longest continuous broadcaster in Phillies History, surpassing Richie "Whitey" Ashburn, who broadcast for the Phils from 1963 until his death in 1997 while on the road covering games in New York.

Ironically Harry would also die doing what he did best--working a Phillies game. Harry died Monday morning after collapsing in the broadcasting booth at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. He was 73.

Harry's death will not only leave a void in the Phillies broadcasting booth, but in other broadcasting ventures as well. He was the voice of NFL Films (replacing another Philadelphia Legend, John Facenda) as well as the radio voice of NFL games in the baseball offseason, college football. He also did voiceovers on the Chunky Soup commercials.

It has been a bad opening week for baseball. Last Thursday morning Angel's Rookie Pitcher Nick Adenhart and two friends were killed in a hit and run drunk driving accident in LA. Later that day, Giants' pitcher Joe Martinez was hit in the head by a line drive suffering a concussion and 3 hairline fractures.

And also on Monday, Mark "The Bird" Fidrych who was a refreshing rookie in 1976 was found dead after an accident while working on a truck at his home. The only time I ever saw him pitch in person was the 1976 All-Star game in Philadelphia, and he was a joy to watch with his antics on the mound. Unfortunately his career was cut short by injuries, but he will always be rememberered for his antics on the mound, and the fact that he never seemed to let stardom go to his head.

We will miss Harry, Mark and Nick, and best wishes to a speedy recovery to Joe.