Very, very sad news from DC today. The Hall of Fame voice of the Phillies, Harry Kalas, has died. He was 73.
Other Phillies bloggers will come up with much more thorough, eloquent tributes to Harry the K, but I feel compelled to share a few of my thoughts on the man.
Harry called games with a lovely, sonorous baritone (aided by thousands of Parliament Lights, which the man apparently smoked with impunity). Even in his later years as he lost a step (so to speak) it was still a pleasure to hear him call a home run with his signature “swing and a loooooong drive” call. I can only imagine how much it means to players to have him call a home run or a well-made play on their highlight reels.
His rapport with Whitey Ashburn was legendary; Phillies fans of a certain age can perform the Celebre’s Pizza gag from memory.
My favorite of his broadcast quirks was when he’d sign off a West coast game that would inevitably end after midnight on the East coast with the final score and “Good morning, everybody.”
Even if you weren’t a Phillies fan, you knew Harry Kalas’ work; his distinctive voice made him a favorite voice-over artist for NFL Films, Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl, commercials, and movie trailers.
I admit that after the Phillies won the World Series last season, I thought Harry should retire. The call that’s become a rallying cry for Phillies fans everywhere–“The 0-2 pitch: Swing and a miss! Struck him out! The Philadelphia Phillies are 2008 world champions of baseball!”–would truly send him off into retirement at the top of his game. But when the season opened this year I realized that the team needed Harry to be there, to be the voice of the campaign to defend their hard-won title. Who else could do it but he?
Phillies games will never sound the same without Harry Kalas doing play-by-play. But I take pleasure in the fact that he died in the pursuit of something he loved, something about which he was passionate. We should all be so lucky.
Plunk Chutley 
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