Posted: Monday, April 13, 2009, 5:42 PM | 31 comments |
 

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Please feel free to use this space to share your memories of Harry Kalas, and also to email me at amartino@phillynews.com if you had a personal encounter with Harry and would like to tell that story. It was a great honor to work in proximity to Harry, and a deep disappointment that the time I had to do so was brief.  Our Jim Salisbury has been in D.C. while I've been on an airplane back from Denver, and will continue to bring coverage to you via the web and tomorrow's newspaper.
Posted by Andy Martino @ 5:42 PM  Permalink | 31 comments
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:05 PM, 04/13/2009
    Having grown up in Trenton my first time hearing Harry was with my Grandad who listened to the Phils on the radio. He was not only the voice of the Phils but along with Vin Scully the two voices of baseball. Why do I say this. Having lived in Florida for many years now and a die hard Marlins fan, I have XM to listen to Harry and Vin. Thanks Harry, I am sure you are in the booth with Mel Allen and Skip Carey doing tonights game in heaven.
    — ksmmike
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:54 PM, 04/13/2009
    Mine is not a baseball memory. One cold Sunday afternoon last winter, while the Eagles were struggling to stay in the playoff race and I was driving while feeling kind of worn out by the Midwestern winter and lonely from having missed the World Series parade. I began to skim thru stations on the radio and suddenly I heard a familiar voice, there was Harry K., the voice of Philly, covering an NFL game. I don't remember which game it was and didn't pay attention to the game, but just left his voice on in the background and didn't feel so far away anymore.
    — atp2007
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:02 PM, 04/13/2009
    I loved Harry's voice. Moving away from Philly decades ago made me appreciate Harry even more. Whenever I got the chance (if I was in Philly or if Harry was calling an NFL game), I would listen just to hear his distinctive timbre. I can't remember the last time I was so saddened by the passing of someone I never met. I (no doubt like Philly fans the world over) felt like I knew Harry well, just because I had an intimate relationship with his voice. It makes it a little harder to care about baseball (I'll get over that, of course). RIP Harry; now the Phillies will be WFC for you for all of eternity...
    — troubledog
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:03 PM, 04/13/2009
    Harry, we love you and we'll miss you. On another note, I just want to say how unimpressed I am with the Inquirer's coverage of Harry's death. This was a significant event for the Phillies and the fans of the Phillies. We lost someone we loved and you are just posting on your blog right now about the loss. In this day and age of technology, you would think something would have gone up around the time it was announced or at least within an hour. As of 3 or 4 PM there was no mention of his death from the Inquirer, only from the Daily News, I just don't understand it and I think that it is very unprofessional. Murphy had a posting up less than an hour after it happened and right before that the Daily News had a few lines about it. This is of no disrespect to Harry or his family, just of the botched job of the Inquirer and its staff.
    — robm0202
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:18 PM, 04/13/2009
    Story about Harry the Person. In 1982 my friend's father retired and he went on a cruise with his wife to celebrate. Harry Kalas was on the cruise and they had a chance to socialize with him like dozens of other fans. Within a week of returning, my friend's father died suddenly from a heart attack. Harry learned about his passing and took the time to attend the wake to pay his respects to the widow and her family. These folks had been strangers to him a few weeks before. It was a gesture that was greatly appreciated and unique in this era of the inflated ego. Harry Kalas, you are the Man. You will always be remembered by all fans for your love of the game and true humanity.
    — BarrryMoscow
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:17 PM, 04/13/2009
    during the strike year of '94 i happened to be at dave & buster's one night with my wife at the time and another couple. harry was there along with larry andersen and chris wheeler. i went to the corner of the bar to order us some drinks, the same corner where mr. kalas was regaling a few people with one of his many true observations, i asked him "harry,what have they done to our game?". he left the corner followed me to our table, asked if he could join us and proceeded to spin baseball magic for the next half hour.he told stories about managers and players that as a fan we only have grainy black and white images. for me he and his voice were the bridge between baseball past and baseball future.having grown up listening to his voice all these years is one of the special things about the game that makes me want to share it with my 2 year old son. thank you harry you made the bad games enjoyable and the winning games absolutely memorable. god bless you will be missed
    — robbie r
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:02 PM, 04/13/2009
    I've lived in Florida for 10 years and just got MLB.Com to watch my Phillies and be able to choose the local audio. Yesterday, Harry's last game, I kept switching from the tv feed to the radio feed to hear him. All those nights listening on the front porch or in the car as a kid...and beyond. Spent a lot of time with someone I never met. High hopes indeed.
    — TomO
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:04 PM, 04/13/2009
    The Phillies should start playing "High Hopes" at Citizens Bank Park from this day forward after every Phillies victory!
    — smel4727
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:30 PM, 04/13/2009
    I have watching the Phillies since I was a little kid, almost forty years now. It's like watching a movie unfold in front of your eyes every night, year after year. Harry was the music. I will miss him.
    — Dave Peters
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:35 PM, 04/13/2009
    Yesterday I listened to the game from my dorm room here in California, and in the middle innings when Harry came on I thought how amazing it was that even being so far away, just hearing Harry made me feel as if I was home listening to the game with my dad like I have done countless times before. Harry brought something to the broadcast booth that transcended the game: his voice was beautiful and true and timeless, and no matter where I was or how I changed I could rely upon it staying as it had always been. Now he is gone, and for some time it will feel wrong to continue the season and to keep listening to the broadcasts. Part of our family is missing. But I think Harry would be proud that we took the field today, and it would be important to him that we keep playing and rooting for more baseball. We owe this to him.
    — jfish90
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:59 AM, 04/14/2009
    Really what can you say at a time like this? There are very few events in life that serve as milestones or as the cliche goes, "the end of an era," but the passing of Harry Kalas is truly one of them. I'm 49, so all my Phillies memories (OK, but for a few faint echoes of Bill Campbell way back when...) involve this man and his voice. Like so many others, I have an instantaneous thought of my father, gone almost 3 years now, and how Harry's loss would have affected him. There have been sci-fi tales based on the concept that radio waves, once transmitted, travel forever, bouncing around the atmosphere, and even the universe, forever. I'd like to think that's true, and that there are still beings out there somewhere who will continue to discover what we call baseball through the magic of Harry's incomparable voice and persona. Farewell, Harry. We will surely miss ya.
    — bobby
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:22 AM, 04/14/2009
    Nothing profound here, just the same as everyone else, grew up in 70s, grew up on baseball, grew up on Kalas' voice. I learned baseball from Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn, like so many others have. A part of my childhood is gone - it is not over-dramatizing for me to say that. I am so glad he was around to call the 2008 World Series final out.
    — NJLouis66
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:33 AM, 04/14/2009
    I never had a personal encounter with Harry Kalas, but I remember the first time a heard his voice. I moved to Philadelphia to live with my older brother. It was during the summer of 1979. We came home late that night. My brother went to sleep and I decided to turn on the TV. The Phillies were playing in the West Coast. Mike Schmidt was batting. It was on the first pitch I ever saw in Philadelphia that I heard Harry said: "Long drive. Watch that baby. Outta here. Home run. Michael Jack Schmidt." I was a Cincinnati Reds fan. I will never forget that night watching probably the greatest third baseman to ever play the game hit a homerun and one of the greatest voices in baseball make that home run call. Soon I became a Phillies fan, thanks to those two Hall of famers, one with the powerful stroke and hands of silk and the other with a voice strong enough to fling down a wall but so sublime that will only fondle it. RIP Harry.
    — EL Zorro
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:37 AM, 04/14/2009
    love smell4727's idea. Never will forget summer nights growing up. The call that always sticks in my head (not sure why) always has been: '3,2 pitch, struck'eem out'. may god bless him and his family
    — ag
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:22 AM, 04/14/2009
    Chase Utley is a fine ballplayer, but Harry Kalas, YOU ARE THE MAN. Spring and summer will never sound the same again.
    — RollinsWasRight


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About Matt Gelb and Bob Brookover












Bob Brookover and Matt Gelb team up for their third straight season covering the Phillies for the Inquirer and philly.com.

This is Brookover’s second stint writing about the Phillies, having joined the coverage team after seven years as an Eagles beat writer. Brookover was hired by The Inquirer in 2000 as the Phillies beat writer after spending 13 years writing about the team for two suburban newspapers. While on the Eagles beat, Brookover, who had covered just two winning Phillies teams in 15 seasons, saw the Phillies move into a cash-cow new ballpark and begin playing a brand of the game he found unrecognizable. Follow him on Twitter here.

Gelb is in his third season covering the Phillies. He was hired by The Inquirer in August 2009 after graduating from Syracuse University. He has also covered baseball at The Star-Ledger and Cape Cod Times. Born and raised in Bucks County, he attended Central Bucks High School West. Follow him on Twitter here.
To submit a question for Matt Gelb's Phillies mailbag, click here.

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