Here’s the in-booth shot of the final call of the 2008 World Series by Harry Kalas. It’s a shame, you definitely won’t be listening to Harry here. Chris Wheeler is going KA-RAZY!

I’m sure by now you have all watched the FOX video of “The Double Play” that wrapped up the division for the Phillies yesterday. For your listening pleasure, here’s the audio clip courtesy of WPHT 1210 AM Philadelphia with Harry Kalas and Larry Andersen on the call. Enjoy:

After the Atlanta Braves put up a 9-spot in the 4th inning against Hollywood Hamels, things looked bleak for the Phillies. And then, just one inning later, their bats came alive. Following RBI’s by Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell, Chris Coste made it a 2-run game with a cue shot off the end of his bat down the right-field line. That put runners at the corners with 2 outs for the best pinch-hitter in all the land, Greg Dobbs.

I’ll let Harry Kalas, in his first game back since eye surgery, take it from here:

Some great news from the Inqy this morning. Harry Kalas and his newly re-attached retina are coming back:

Harry Kalas, who had surgery to repair a detached retina last Friday, has been cleared to return to the broadcast booth tomorrow afternoon, when the Phillies play the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park.

Kalas will travel Sunday with the Phils to Washington, where they will open a three-game series on Tuesday against the Nationals.

So, it looks as though we’re stuck with the Wheels/McCarthy/Sarge trio for one more night. Tomorrow afternoon is a FOX game, and since FOX is the Saturday afternoon baseball cartel, he will only be heard on the radio dial. Sunday, he’ll be back in the TV booth with CW57 and T-Mac will once again be relegated to “in-the-stands” duty for the first three innings.

Welcome back, Harry.

Phillies Notes | Inquirer

The broadcaster with the most recognizable pipes in Philadelphia, Harry Kalas, didn’t make his usual trip with the team to Florida this weekend.  The 72-year old Hall of Fame play-by-play man is resting at home after he underwent minor surgery this morning to repair a detached retina in his left eye.  Harry’s temporary fill-in, Tom McCarthy, informed tonight’s viewing audience that, “[Harry] is hopefully going to rejoin the Phillies sometime when they are in New York (July 22-24), if not, then when the team returns home this weekend.”

The hypochondriac approved WebMD had this to say about the detaching of your retina:

The retina is a thin membrane of nerve tissue that lines the back of the eye. Retinal detachment occurs when the inner layer of the retina separates from the wall of the eye.

The nerve cells in the retina normally detect light entering the eye and send signals to the brain about what the eye sees. But when the retina detaches, it no longer works correctly. It can cause blurred and lost vision.

Retinal detachment requires care right away. Without treatment, vision loss can progress from minor to severe or even to blindness within a few hours or days.

It sounds as if they caught the problem in time and Harry is recovering just fine.  However, in my perusal of various retinal deatchment horror stories on the internet, it seems as though it could take months to fully heal.  Even then, some people still complain of problems with depth-perception and/or massive headaches.  Prior to surgery, Harry wasn’t exactly what you would call “at the top of his game” when it comes to judging if a deep fly was a home run or not, and I don’t really see how this can help things.

Hopefully it’s not serious, and Harry returns to the booth ASAP with a brand new, fully connected retina and that beautifully-cadenced baritone voice that I’m so used to.

Get well soon, Harry.

Phillies color commentator Gary Matthews has one of the greatest hat collections any human being has ever assembled. Each broadcast, no matter how the Phillies are playing, you can be assured of one thing - The Sarge will be sporting a new, stylish hat. Throughout the course of the season, I’ve been collecting screenshots of said hats, strictly for my personal enjoyment. But now I feel it would be rather selfish of me to keep them a secret. So I have decided to share them with the masses. You can thank me later.

And now, without further adieu, a Fightins’ exclusive - the Gary Matthews hat slideshow…

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