Harry the K

yesterday we lost the voice of my baseball life. longtime philadelphia phillies broadcaster harry kalas passed away at the age of 73. i honestly don't have a baseball memory without a connection to hk, by the time i was born he had already been in the phillies booth for 8 seasons and by the time i was aware of baseball it'd been well over a decade. i remember hearing him over the radio while helping my dad in the back yard as a kid and the joy of catching a few minutes of harry's call while wandering the concourse of the vet or in the infamous veterans stadium bathroom. i felt completely lost when i went away to college in portland, oregon before the days of the baseball package on cable or the internet, stuck with the rare espn or fox broadcast, wishing it was harry telling me about the long drives. i remember a few years ago living just on the outskirts of the philadelphia broadcast reach when i had to move my car around our complex parking lot to catch a fuzzy fourth inning just to hear harry send along birthday wishes and hoping for a classic "outta heeeeere".

i think what i'll miss most is that win or lose, good team or bad (and there were plenty of bad) harry was behind those phillies 100% and you knew it. he loved the players, he loved the game and it sure as hell felt like he loved us. and we loved him right back.



















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