I Miss Harry the K, But...

Harry Kalas was an incredible announcer and a Philadelphia legend. I will miss him dearly, as will millions of other sports fans. It's sad that he passed away this week, and I certainly grieve for his family.

All that said, I'd still have to say that the media and fans of this town need to start letting go and moving on. I just logged on to Philly.com to get my dose of the latest news, and right there on the front page is a live streaming video of thousands of fans paying respects to Harry the K at Citizens Bank Park. Hmmm...

For starters, I don't recall the Philadelphia Inquirer ever playing a live streaming video on their website, let alone their home page, so I find it a bit peculiar that they would start with this event.

Secondly, I watched for a moment and saw people walking up to the casket and taking photos. People were even posing with the casket and somebody snapped their picture. Is that REALLY being respectful?

And speaking of the Inquirer, the media coverage of Kalas's death has been absolutely relentless. How about we leave the man be, and perhaps sprinkle some bits about him into future broadcasts, rather than deluging us with countless personal recollections of him, showing how many people added Phillies paraphernalia to the Mike Schmidt statue at CBP, and replaying the 2008 World Series call?

Let's be clear here... Harry the K lived a long, fruitful life, seemed like a great guy, and will be greatly missed. But I think it's time to move on. Sorry for sounding "callous", but I don't think Harry would have wanted all this attention. We loved Harry, we'll miss him, we've grieved, now we collectively should let the man rest and let his family get some peace...

Whatever Happened to Andy Musser?

From 1976 to 2001, Andy Musser was a mainstay of the Philadelphia Phillies broadcast team, sitting in the booth alongside the famed Harry Kalas, immortal Richie Ashburn, and the Penn State alum Chris Wheeler. During that span, Musser missed only two games, both due to laryngitis. And prior to that, he could be heard calling Eagles and Sixers games, according to baseball-reference.com. He retired from the Phils in '01 and has subsequently, seemingly disappeared.

I did some internet trolling and had a hard time finding good stuff on Musser or any real updates. But here are some things I did find:

-Check out the three calls by Musser on this 1980 Philadelphia Phillies World Series tribute page

-Unbelievably funky photo of the Phils 1980 broadcast team on the same 1980 Phillies World Series tribute site

-And unfortunately other than a few wry comments on random blogs and articles about Musser's apparent love for beer, philosophical chatter, and dry conversation during games, I didn't find much else online. Anybody else got anything to contribute???

If you're out there Andy, drop us a line and give us an update... and go Phils!

Dan Baker Announcement Maker

Caught a segment on Comcast Sports today about the old mainstay of the Phillies' PA system, Mr. Dan Baker, who has announced Phils' games for 37 years. The story showed how his gameday routine works from pre-game preparations like getting the pronounciation of players' names accurate (Julian Martinez is pronounced like Hulian Martinez, for those who didn't know) to fighting his way up through crowds to get to his PA booth.

While the story about him wasn't all that intriguing, quite frankly, I do find it intriguing that announcers (public address announcers or broadcasters alike) have the ability to last so long at their respective jobs. If you look around the city as well as national scene, it seems like once you get "in" you're "in" for life. For instance, consider these big names and how long they've been or once lasted on the job:

-Harry Kalas
-Merrill Reese
-Marv Albert
-Andy Mussberger
-Keith Jackson
-Howard Cosell
-Vin Scully
-John Madden
-and so on...

I'm not quite sure what the reasoning is for this, but my hunch would be that these on-air personalities develop a certain rapport and comfort with the fans and become instantly recognized with the team, channel, or sport they represent. As a result, these announcers maintain their job security and boost their salaries over the years (not to mention picking up endorsements and other speaking gigs), while simultaneously preventing younger up-and-coming announcers from getting their day in the sun. And as it is easy to see, not only do these announcers not gracefully just hang up the mic and go away... they practically have to be dragged out of the booth.

Ironically, this longevity is why so many college students go to study broadcasting... because once you establish yourself, you can be around a long time, not to mention get to watch sports and talk sports all day. Paradoxically, with so many broadcasters lasting so long and a limited number of announcing gigs, it becomes harder and harder for these young graduates to get work. Murphy's Law I guess.

So at any rate, thank you Dan Baker for your your three+ decades of in-game announcing. And if you happen to have an inkling as to when you plan to leave, please give me a shout and I'd love to try out for your job!