Outta Here!

What a Mean Title. But those two words cannot be said in any other voice than Harry Kalas'. I still have his call for Mike Schmidt's 500 Home Run ringing in my head, in fact sometimes when I am in the car driving, I was give that call. Kind of odd, probably, but this is the effect Harry Kalas has had on my life.

Up until a few years ago, Phillies baseball was synonymous with losing. If there was a way to lose, the Phillies invented it. Back in the old days, it was always the same, the Phils would seem like they might have a chance, fly out to the West Coast and drop 7 of nine to San Diego, LA and San Fran, moving the Phillies down the NL East standings. But there was one constant, no matter how bad the team was or how bad the games were, we had the privilege of listening to Harry Kalas.

Philadelphia is a fickle city. We sit in the shadow's of New York and Washington, we complain when we loss, we complain when we win, we are tough on the athletes and management who perform for us. We are never satisfied, we are a bunch of Arm Chair GMs who can do it better than the guys being paid to do it. The one constant our sports has are the guys who call the games for us. And Harry Kalas was the best.

I never met Harry, but I wanted to so bad. Every time I went to Spring Training, I hoped I would get 2 autograph's - Mike Schmidt and Harry Kalas. I've met Mike Schmidt before and he was very pleasant towards me. I even joked with him about Harry's call on his 500 and I did a lame imitation of it, it got a chuckle. I always wanted to meet Harry and just wanted to thank him for making Phillies baseball so enjoyable to me.

Harry Kalas will be sorely missed and I am glad I had the privilege of listening to him for 37 years. When I am alone in my car and that thought pops into my head, "Swing and a long drive, deep left field, that ball is outta here, Number 500 Michael Jack Schmidt," I will say out loud with a smile on my face.