drsmooth wrote:Doug Glanville's remembrance of Harry for NY Times: A Devastating Quiet

Can't say I really thrill to Glanville's prose but I liked this bit:

Harry’s signature white jacket and white shoes would light up the lobby after those 3:00 a.m. arrivals that began West Coast trips. And no matter where in the country we were, he would take the time to lend his golden voice to whatever we asked — announce the team’s annual fantasy football draft, or be on call to deliver his signature “struck him out” just because Bobby Abreu wanted to hear it one more time.

Nice piece. Cool that it's a link at the top of nytimes.com.

This is something I posted to friends the other day when i was really struggling through the memorials.


4-13-2009

“Did the Phillies win today?” was the question I was confronted with.

I could only nod in affirmation as my lips couldn’t bring the words to surface.

That was probably because despite the box score that read a 9-8 victory for the Phils over the Washington Nationals, the reality is that they suffered one of the greatest losses in the 126 year history of the franchise.

Harry Kalas died today at the age of 73.

In passing, he took with him a thunderously smooth baritone voice, a wonderful love of the game and the soul of a franchise and fan base that is left speechless in his absence.

Through good times and bad Kalas was the epitome of professionalism. In Philadelphia, the land of 10,000 losses, there have been quite a bit of bad times. What Kalas brought however, was the unique ability to make every game seem like it was the most important game on the schedule, every tight game feel like game 7 of the World Series.

Its times like these that fans carry with them heavy hearts and perhaps even teary eyes. To many it seems silly to mourn a man that they may have never even met, but to some the loss is akin to that of family or friends. You see throughout the years, friendships develop and deteriorate, families can grow apart and people come and go. However, for nearly forty years, Harry Kalas was in your living room and on your radio. Fathers who sat with sons on their lap give way to sons who sit with grandchildren on theirs. Same team. Same voice . Same home run call. Same charm.

The signs of spring usher in hope and new beginnings. However, along with each new budding branch comes the gentle warmth of familiarity. The robin sings outside your window, the sun shares a golden glow a few hours longer, and that same friendly voice brings to you a new season of the game. The game you played as a boy and escaped to as a man, if only chase boyhood once more . 162 more times you would meet again and pull for your Phils . The names on the jerseys may change, the man behind the mic never did.

Kalas and his longtime broadcast partner, Richie “Whitey” Ashburn, were fixtures in living rooms up until Ashburn’s passing in 1997. In an era of free agency filled contracts, million dollar men and thousand dollar seats it is easy to grow bitter, to turn your back on the game like a page in a scorecard. Not when Harry was at the helm. You could not help but find yourself immersed in the game when it was called by a man with the same exuberance of child who had gone through the turn style hoping for a tip of the cap from his favorite player. It’s easy over the years to get beaten down by the business of life. Harry freed us from this and brought back to us the love of the game.

The golden mic has fallen silent and summers will never be the same. Baseball diamonds are forever but legends, sadly, are not. Philly’s finest is “outta here”. Ten thousand losses… none more painful than this.

"HK" symbol on the CSN scoreboard bug

BigEd76 wrote:"HK" symbol on the CSN scoreboard bug

Sharp eye Ed, nice touch CSN.

I just got teary-eyed again thinking about a Harry story

FOX29 page

they'll supposedly stream Saturday's CBP festivities all morning and start televising at 1pm

The Dude wrote:I just got teary-eyed again thinking about a Harry story

i keep apologizing to my wife because it's all i want to talk about. she said to me, "this is your biggest death, isn't it?"

i've been pretty lucky as far as family members go. i have lost one grandparent, and that was back in college. so yeah, she's not far off.

I know it sounds bad, but it feels like when my grandfather died. I knew I'd be sad after the initial shock, but I'm really sad

1 wrote:

The Dude wrote:I just got teary-eyed again thinking about a Harry story

i keep apologizing to my wife because it's all i want to talk about. she said to me, "this is your biggest death, isn't it?"

i've been pretty lucky as far as family members go. i have lost one grandparent, and that was back in college. so yeah, she's not far off.

I've lost both grandparents on my mom's side, my dad, my aunt, two childhood pets, two mentors (one recently, John Brattain), and some more I don't even want to remember, but HK's passing ranks up there with all of 'em, which may or may not sound nice, depending on how you look at it.

My parents put me in front of the TV watching Phillies games as soon as I came home from the hospital when I was born, they told me. So, I "knew" HK longer than anyone else in my life aside from my parents. That's really something, I think.

wondering if the Phillies will make available the black HK patch in sticker form for the fans?

Some people trying to make a buck on Harry's death here. The classic thong is a nice item

Warszawa wrote:wondering if the Phillies will make available the black HK patch in sticker form for the fans?

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Yeah, I think I'd violate my no-bumber-sticker rule for that....

Bucky wrote:

Warszawa wrote:wondering if the Phillies will make available the black HK patch in sticker form for the fans?

|

Yeah, I think I'd violate my no-bumber-sticker rule for that....

Unfortunately CafePress only sells these in bulk packs of 48 (or at least I can't figure out how to sell them individually), but there is no markup on them. Priced at cost, CafePress gets all the money

http://www.cafepress.com/HKPatches

Hmm debating on buying a 48 pack, keeping 10 for myself and friends, and then handing the rest out at an upcoming game...

philliesr98 wrote:Hmm debating on buying a 48 pack, keeping 10 for myself and friends, and then handing the rest out at an upcoming game...

what a fine idea. i'm totally going to do that.

game 5, 9th inning just came up in iTunes.

Woody wrote:

Bucky wrote:

Warszawa wrote:wondering if the Phillies will make available the black HK patch in sticker form for the fans?

|

Yeah, I think I'd violate my no-bumber-sticker rule for that....

Unfortunately CafePress only sells these in bulk packs of 48 (or at least I can't figure out how to sell them individually), but there is no markup on them. Priced at cost, CafePress gets all the money

http://www.cafepress.com/HKPatches

bumping in case anyone is interested in wallpapering the region

Huge props to the Phillies organization for everything they've done to honor the memory of Harry Kalas. It's amazing what they've been able to put together and organize on such short notice.

supposedly a big video montage coming up on CSN at 6:20PM

Woody wrote:

Woody wrote:

Bucky wrote:

Warszawa wrote:wondering if the Phillies will make available the black HK patch in sticker form for the fans?

|

Yeah, I think I'd violate my no-bumber-sticker rule for that....

Unfortunately CafePress only sells these in bulk packs of 48 (or at least I can't figure out how to sell them individually), but there is no markup on them. Priced at cost, CafePress gets all the money

http://www.cafepress.com/HKPatches

bumping in case anyone is interested in wallpapering the region

You can save that picture on your computer (I don't believe its copyrighted) and then use it to create your own custom sticker at Zazzle.com (like if you didn't want to pay so much or if you don't need 48 stickers). The step by step ordering process allows you to resize it using their image editor which allows you to get rid of the '48 pack' nonsense on the image.

1 sheet of stickers = $4.95. This is for either 1.5" round size (20 per sheet) or 3" round size (6 per sheet) stickers

Warszawa wrote:

Woody wrote:

Woody wrote:

Bucky wrote:

Warszawa wrote:wondering if the Phillies will make available the black HK patch in sticker form for the fans?

|

Yeah, I think I'd violate my no-bumber-sticker rule for that....

Unfortunately CafePress only sells these in bulk packs of 48 (or at least I can't figure out how to sell them individually), but there is no markup on them. Priced at cost, CafePress gets all the money

http://www.cafepress.com/HKPatches

bumping in case anyone is interested in wallpapering the region

You can save that picture on your computer (I don't believe its copyrighted) and then use it to create your own custom sticker at Zazzle.com (like if you didn't want to pay so much or if you don't need 48 stickers). The step by step ordering process allows you to resize it using their image editor which allows you to get rid of the '48 pack' nonsense on the image.

1 sheet of stickers = $4.95. This is for either 1.5" round size (20 per sheet) or 3" round size (6 per sheet) stickers

I don't need to save the image I posted, it's an original creation. Thanks for the Zazzle heads up. If anyone wants to make them from Zazzle, PM me and I can e-mail you the HK image (3")