Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Rise and Shine --- Different summer

Good Morning and welcome to a brave new world.

It's funny sometimes how the mind works. When the death of Phillies announcer Harry Kalas first started to filter through the regular channels, many remembered some of his famous calls.
Whether it be the call of Mike Schmidt's 500th home run or the one after the Phillies won the 2008 World Series or his work at NFL Films, there is a Harry Kalas memory somewhere in the mind.
My mind, as many will probably joyfully tell you, works a little different. My memory isn't about a call, it's something that happened nearly every game during the 1970s.
Growing up, we were lucky enough to have a neighbor who had season tickets to the Phillies. His seats were three rows off the field behind the visitors' dugout. We would get a chance to use the seats maybe 10 times a year.
For a kid just getting into baseball, this was heaven. You could yell to the players and they might even turn around.
Most of the seats around the section were for visiting players' families, but there was one loud guy further down the row named Hank. His voice would boom over any cheers, any call, any music.
During the seventh inning stretch of every home game, Hank would turn around and yell up to the booth to Harry.
"Hey, Harry."
It got to the point where we could pick Hank out of the crowd during games when listening on the radio or watching TV.
Anyway, Harry would always wave to Hank. Hank would wave back and the whole section would cheer.
That's what I'll remember of Harry Kalas. That and how even during some very, very bad baseball years in Philadelphia, you could always listen to the Phillies. Even when Steve Jeltz was batting.


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