I’m sure most of you remember this, but it’s always nice to reminisce…

Back on August 9th of 2006, the Philadelphia Phillies were in Turner Field for the rubber match in a 3-game set vs. the Braves. The Phils entered the top of the seventh inning down 3-1 with their 7-8-9 hitters due up (who were, by the way: Mike Lieberthal, Abe Nunez, and pinch-hitter Chris Roberson) against Atlanta reliever Tyler Yates. Miraculously, Lieberthal drew a walk, Nunez hit a single to left field, and Roberson bunted them over to make it 2nd & 3rd with 1 down. After back-to-back walks to Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino — which forced a run in — Bobby Cox played the percentages and brought a fresh lefty named Macay McBride into the game to face Chase Utley.

So Chase works a 2-2 count on McBride before crushing a pitch into the gap in left-center clearing the bases and giving the Phillies a comfortable 5-3 lead. On the next pitch to Ryan Howard, he hits a dribbler up the first base line and Chase — who was off with the pitch — never stopped running and scored from 2nd base on a ball hit about 60 ft. Surely Harry The K never saw anything like it, so he came out with his now-legendary “Chase Utley, you ARE the MAN!” line. Watch:

After the jump, check out video of DNL the following day when Michael Barkann shows Chase the clip of Harry’s call. It’s pretty damn cool.

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I know you’re depressed this morning (like I am).  But just remember — if you’re a fan of a particular baseball team, and you devote entirely too much time and energy into following your favorite squad (like I do), you may never witness a run quite like the run the Phillies have been on for the past year and a half.  Yeah, I know you wanted that second straight World Series trophy (and subsequent bragging rights for the next year), but when it came down to it, the Yankees had three solid starters take the mound for two starts each, and we had Cliff Lee.  It’s disappointing, sure, but in a short series like this, sometimes things just don’t go your way.  The Yankees were better in the key spots all series long, and just outlasted us for six games.  No use complaining about it.

In a way, this year was more fun last.  There’s a certain confidence you get after your team wins the World Series.  In 2008, a lot of people were just waiting for something bad to happen, like they knew that Philadelphia couldn’t possibly win a championship.  This year?  Complete 180°.  No matter the situation, no matter how many runs we were down or who was up at the plate, you kinda expected the team to win.  And that, folks, is a good fucking feeling.

It would’ve been pretty sweet to take down those Yankees — especially if we could have come back from a 3-1 series deficit — but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  But we made Harry the K proud.  And that run by the Phillies this year kept his memory alive.  Any time I see some highlights of 2009 or recall a particular game, the first thing I’ll think about is that HK patch.

Thanks, Phillies.  And thanks to every single one of you who stopped by The Fightins in 2009.  We ain’t going nowhere.

I’ll leave you with this, a post-game quote from Jayson Werth brought to us by the Twitter feed of John R. Finger:

I still fucking love this team.

WHAAA???

That picture of a 2-foot cake version of the late Harry Kalas showed up on the Phillies Twitter feed last night prior to the Phillies 8-6 beating of the New York Yankees. According to the Inquirer’s Gonzo, Cosmi’s Pastries made the cake in hopes of getting the FOX crew to show it on TV, thus earning the South Philly bakery some free national pub. Unfortunately for Cosmi’s, those beat reporters in the press box got their grubby little hands on the thing before any TV cameras could get near it.

Although to be honest, I highly doubt FOX would’ve shown that thing — they don’t have much time for nonsense like this when there’s some good Derek Jeter fellating to be done.

Gonzo also shares this choice line with us — when someone asked if the Harry Kalas cake was in poor taste, one of the witty beat reporters goes, “No – Harry’s delicious.” HI-YOOOOO!

Gonzo: Don’t count out the Fightin’s just yet (2nd item) | Inquirer

Hey Fightins Fans (and you, DMac), how’s it hangin’? After taking in Game 5 down at the ballpark on Wednesday, we had a few days to soak up the fall weather and wait for the Yankees to finish off the Angels. When it became apparent Saturday’s game in The Bronx was a washout, me and my buddy All Proper Mark, five year season ticket partners in the front row of Section 236, decided to make an alternate baseball day of it in the Delaware Valley.

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In the most touching tribute of the night, the Phillies all marched out to left field after clinching their 3rd straight NL East title to huddle around the Harry Kalas billboard, pay their respects, and douse it with champagne and beer.

An extremely classy move by the Fightins. 

Watch it for yourself, after the jump.

UPDATE: Fresh off the Twitter, thanks to @ToddZolecki:

THAT is freaking awesome.

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In this first edition of ‘Phun Phanatic Phlashback Phriday!’ (which will coincidentally be the last edition), watch as the Phillie Phanatic spots a man sitting in the middle of the row near the Phillies dugout, then proceeds to walk over towards him, stand on top of him, and swing his enormous Galapagosian sack all about the guy’s eyes and head. As an added bonus, it happened against the Rockies last year so you get to hear that lovely baritone voice of Harry Kalas paired with Sergeant Matthews.

It might just be the largest public tea-bagging in recorded history.

Ever since the untimely death of legendary Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas on April 13th, the WFC’s have been paying tribute to the man with the golden pipes by hanging his favorite suit jacket and trademark white shoes in the dugout during every game. Since I couldn’t find a good, unobstructed picture of the acknowledgment of one of the all-time greats, I never made a post about it.

Well, after re-watching Sunday night’s game against the Braves, I grabbed the following screenshot from the ESPN broadcast of Ryan Howard seated comfortably in the dugout next to Harry the K’s wardrobe:

Even if you’ve seen it before, I just figured I’d post it for posterity’s sake.

Long live Harry the K.

A few weeks ago during his visually captivating Septa Independence Pass project, the distinguished R. Bradley Maule (or beelove as we know him here on The Fightins) of Philly Skyline made a stop at Laurel Hill cemetery to pay his respects to the greatest broadcaster we have ever heard,  Harry Kalas.  Brad’s words:

At Laurel Hill’s entrance, Harry Kalas’ family had graciously left a guestbook for his fans and visitors of the cemetery to pay their last respects; at his burial place, a temporary headstone had an etched version of Harry in the booth, and a six foot wooden P painted Phillies red marked his grave.

Here’s the picture of the grave (click to enlarge); after the jump, a shot of the guestbook.

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Terrell Owens. Jimmy Fallon. Daulerio. James Madison. Adelaide Brubaker & Mary Jo Catlett. All of these names had the unenviable task of replacing a legend, be it Jerry Rice, Thomas Jefferson, or Mrs. Garrett on Diff’rent Strokes. And the empty space in the Phillies broadcast booth is one that will not soon be filled.

Aside from Harry the K’s death being all sad ‘n shit, it made us realize that, without Harry, the announcing is average at best. In Philadelphia, we are lucky to have top notch announcers in every fucking sport. Now we only have that in 3/4 of them.

This predicament (as Howdy S. Thompson sees it) is restated as a result of Harry Kalas finally being included in the Radio Hall of Fame. Let us me review the current booth
- While some find Tom McCarthy enjoyable, I find his giant baby head a distraction. He’s not particularly interesting, and his voice isn’t very memorable. While Phillies management and PR are trying to make him the venerable Simba of the Phillies announcers, he’s too vanilla for my tastes. And I find vanilla to be fucking delicious.
- Chris Wheeler has the tenure, but he is the Keanu Reeves of the group. Enjoyable in a strange way, but not a Hall of Fame broadcaster. Well, some tend to disagree…
- Sarge Matthews is the closest thing to a deity, but Cadillac Time will always be an add on, not the original call.
- LA seems too angry/bitchy to be the spokesperson for anything.
- Frankze is decent, but is still a youngster. He good by my standards, but not exactly stand-outish.

My solution (the most important opinion), is one the Phillies are accustomed to. They brought back Jose Mesa and Terry Adams, the aforementioned baby head man, but this will be a great recall.

Scott Fucking Graham.

Many were perplexed with his leaving, and no one truly understood why. Sure, there were some that didn’t like him, but there are always dumbasses out there. How could you not be charmed by the utter Carlos Ruiziosity of his Graham Slam commercial? Confusing a man with an ice cream, that’s funny in a ‘supposed to be funny, but unfunny, making it funny’ way.

With his half-decent charisma, the man had a fucking memorable voice. Both Harry and Scott did work for NFL Films. And you need a fucking voice for that shit. Scott ain’t too busy these days, just spouting gold for all of us to hear on CN8’s coverage of the Atlantic 10, or NFL Films reruns.

Put that motherfucker back in the booth. Put that one in the announcer column for the Fightin Phils!

*On an unrelated note* If anything, I always find it a point to include something unrelated to Phillies baseball in my posts. ‘Tard girlfriend once asked me what my blog was about, as she had presumed it was a simple factual rundown of the previous game. It obviously isn’t. This is to be addressed to David Letterman. To put it simply, stop being a fucking pussy and stop fucking apologizing and catering to that underqualified cuntrag from Alaska. Fuck Sarah Palin, and fuck her dimwitted daughters, all of ‘em. Never apologize in comedy. Never.

I don’t like to call organizations classy, or people classy. As a cynical Libertine/nihilist/reprobate, I find it a reflection of one’s own arrogance by applying the term ‘classy’ to a public figure. Some people make a living by kissing losers’ asses and bitching about coffee (RESPECT THE SUN!). Hypocritical individuals and false personalities are created by morons who believe that perfection exists. ‘Classy’ is a load of horseshit.

That being said, the Phillies made an honorable decision to memorialize their legendary broadcaster. From the Daily News:

“In an anonymous wooden locker stall in the visiting clubhouse at Citi Field, a familiar blue blazer was draped on a hanger. Underneath it sat an equally familiar pair of white shoes.

The ensemble is one that Harry Kalas made famous, and the Phillies are now using them to honor the legendary broadcaster, giving the “uniform” its own stall in visiting clubhouses, and displaying it in the dugout during each home game.”

But the best part of this story is whose idea it was to hang the blazer. Which Phillie decided to spearhead this action? No questions asked you already know the answer:

“A group of players, spearheaded by centerfielder Shane Victorino, approached [Frank Coppenbarger,  Phillies' director of team travel and clubhouse services] about obtaining the blazer and shoes, Kalas’ trademark throughout his 39 years as a Phillies broadcaster”

Aloha, bitches. And if this column wasn’t classy enough already, titties after the jump:

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