Harry Kalas, Legendary Phillies Broadcaster, Dies at 73

The legendary Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster, Harry Kalas, passed out in the press box at Nationals Park earlier today and was pronounced dead at GW Hospital shortly after. Harry Kalas, Born in Naperville, Illinois on March 26, 1936, was 73 years old.

From the Washington Post story on Harry Kalas death:

“We lost our voice today,” team president David Montgomery said, his voice cracking. “He has loved our game and made just a tremendous contribution to our sport and certainly to our organization.”

Kalas was found unconscious in the press booth by Phillies director of broadcasting at about 12:30pm local time. Kalas was getting ready for a game with the Nationals at the time.

Kalas missed most of the spring training after recovering from surgery he had in February. Details of the prior surgery were kept quiet from the media and were described only as a “minor medical procedure.”

From Harry Kalas Wikipedia page:

Kalas’ familiar home run call was “Swing…and a long drive, watch this baby, outta here! Home run ” If it was a gigantic home run, he sometimes inserted “deep center field” after “and a long drive” and described it as “that ball’s way outta here!”.

Harry Kalas death comes as a shock and he will be sadly missed by sports fans everywhere.