My first prefessional sports game was probably my first Phillies game, during the debut season of Veterans Stadium...I was about 9 years old...Hence my life-long love affair with the Phillies...And since that was the first year National Baseball Hall of Fame announcer Harry Kalas joined the team, the voice in my head in Phillies games is usually that of Harry Kalas (with a healthy dollop of my friend and colleague Dan Baker on the public address system)...During my tenure at Villanova University in the athletic department, sometimes "perks" came my way, and the only ones I really wanted were Phillies perks...Somewhere along the line I latched on to a producer who did the San Francisco Giants road games, and was designated as "their" stat guy when they came to the Vet once a year...Sitting in the big main press box, with beat writers and broadcasters I had come to know both through work, and as a fan/listener/reader...One of those particular Phillies/Giants games, there's a massive rain delay, enabling me to take off the headset and visit the men's room...There I am at urinal stall number one, taking care of business...Halfway through, enter Harry Kalas, who proceeds to stand at the urinal next door, looks me in the eye, and in full Harry the K mode, proclaims, "Boy Does This Feel Good!"...It was all I could do not to burst into laughter, I had to finish up my business, wash my hands and stifle the coming explosion until I got back into the pressbox. Laughing hysterically, the guys on the other end of the TV production crew headsets were wondering why I was laughing so hard. Really, I couldn't let on...Later in that series, I remember my friend and colleague Andy Musser, who also did play by play for the Wildcats, bringing me in to sit in the broadcast booth with Harry, Whitey, Wheels and special guest Garry Maddox, because Garry's son was thinking of going to Villanova to play baseball...It was an honor to be with them...Trust me, though, when I tell you that the moment in the Phillies press box men's room with Harry Kalas was the single funniest moment I will always remember at the Vet, on a par with Ed Sfida's Olympic Torch run to the top of Veterans Stadium, the woman at a later Phillies/Giants game in the front row next to the Giants dugout who got hit hard by a foul-ball, taken away in a stretcher, while her husband kissed her on the forehead and went back to finish watching the game. Harry Kalas, who are the Man!...It was always a pleasure to hear him, to see him, to meet him at events like the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association annual awards banquet, and a pleasure to help him get Villanova-Syracuse tickets way back in the day. I will miss him. His career touched generations of fans and families throughout the Philadelphia area. And his work with NFL Films and beyond will be missed (who's going to do the next Puppy Bowl???)...I wish I could have added "Boy does this feel good" the Harry Kalas doll I have with sound card of his memorable calls. It's a memorable one for me! I hope to see him and Whitey together in ther great pressbox in the sky one day.
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