Bill Conlin: Conlin's All-Time Phillies Call-Stars | Philadelphia Daily News

CALL THEM THE All-Time Phillies Call-Stars, 20 gifted athletes with brain-powered tonsils that elevated them from the playing field to the broadcast booth or TV studio.

So many of these multifaceted athletes with a gift for communicating the nuances of major league baseball wore Phillies pinstripes on the way to their second careers it is possible to fill every position - sometimes multiple times - plus starters and relievers.

And we're not talking utility voices here. This list includes multiple Emmy winners and Hall of Fame broadcast wing winners.

Catcher Bob Uecker is a member of both the radio and baseball halls of fame. The former TV sitcom star made 64 Johnny Carson guest appearances. As "Major League's" Harry Doyle, Uecker made

"Juuuust a bit outside" part of the sports lexicon. Jim Kaat, one of the most versatile ex-jock broadcasters ever, has seven Emmys in his trophy case.

Studio shows? There's Ricky Bottalico doing "Phillies Post-Game Live" and "Daily News Live" on Comcast SportsNet. That's Mitch Williams, peering owlishly over his granny glasses on the MLB Channel and various CSN gigs. Here's John Kruk, administering equal doses of wisdom and dead-pan smack on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight."

So, hum a few bars of "Auld Lang Syne" while I give you the All-Time Phillies Call-Stars by position:

First base

* Tommy Hutton (1972-77). As a sweet-swinging Phillies backup first baseman, Tommy owned Tom Seaver. After analyst jobs with ESPN, the Yankees, Blue Jays and Montreal Expos, the personable Californian has been a staple of the Marlins' TV crew since the team's inception.

* John Kruk (1989-94). No further introduction is necessary for an All-Star player, '93 Phils icon, self-deprecating author and razor-sharp analyst.

* Bill White (1966-68). All-Star first baseman. Revered Yankees color man. National League president. Enough said.

Second base

* Joe Morgan (1983). The Wheeze Kid and Hall of Famer ranks with tennis genius John McEnroe as the best sports analysts going, despite misspeaks and blown facts that have earned him the ultimate tribute to fame, a blog site called "Fire Joe Morgan." Two Emmys . . . The current ESPN A-team analyst called both Giants and A's games before his long network career.

* Cookie Rojas (1963-69). Gene Mauch's most versatile player broadcasts Marlins games in Spanish and teams in the booth with son Victor Rojas during the annual Caribbean Series.

Shortstop

* Larry Bowa (1970-81). Worked as

ESPN studio analyst between firing as Phillies manager and hiring as Yankees third-base coach. As a player, Bowa was a baseball poet in blankety-blank verse. Three games before the Phils clinched the 1980 division title, he ripped fans on his radio show. Bo knows the inside of inside baseball better than anybody since Mauch.

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