And, Mike Lieberthal signed a one-day contract worth $4 to retire as a Phillie, plus the Reds’ Junior Griffey is in town for a four-game series with 599 homers. (Will a fan throw it back if he catches it?) Ahh, but after the jump, my favorite part of the weekend: Jimmy Rollins scores on an error after a pickoff throw attempt and Harry Kalas (and the viewing audience) is utterly confused as to what just happened.
Eh. Losing a series to the Mets less than a dozen games into the series isn’t a washout, but once again the Phillies have opened the season flat. If the Phillies had any sort of psychological edge against the Mets, it ended when Jose Reyes was called safe last night in the bottom of the 12th inning.
Bugs and Cranks has frame-by-frame coverage of the play at the plate — thank you, I didn’t want to have to do that myself — and it appears Coste (ever the wily minor league vet) blocks the plate and tags Reyes out before he touches the plate. It’s hard to tell.
This is true: Harry Kalas had already ended the game by the time Angel Pagan singled into center field. Check out his call after the jump.
That’s Wheels stumbling over his words after Kalas’ announces “Dennis Hopper,” presumably attempting to not say anything that will get him punched.
The Phillies just wrapped up a series with the Cincinnati Reds with a 5-3 victory to split the four-game set. Pat Burrell hit two homers, Brad Lidge got his first save and Tom Gordon’s fastball hit 94 miles per hour! The Fightins are now 3-4, and it’s still early, but — man! — are they ever infuriating already this season. Same as every year.
Update, 4:44 p.m.:Brad writes in with this note, “Harry said “Dennis Hopper” at least three times in his one inning on the radio. LA had nothing to say about it.” Get a TV in your office, man!
Yesterday, the Phillies re-hired Tom McCarthy, who worked the Phillies’ radio broadcast from 2001 to 2005 before leaving for the Mets radio job.
McCarthy is a good PBP guy, and he’ll now work three innings of television when Harry is on break. (This means no more Chris Wheeler play-by-play, which is what he’s better at.) McCarthy signed an unprecedented five-year deal with the Phillies, which is two years longer than any deal Harry Kalas has ever signed.
“I always enjoyed working with T-Mac,” Kalas said. “I’m glad he’s back in Philadelphia.”
Kalas is 71, but he’s not heading out the door anytime soon, huzzah, huzzah. I’m still up for just hiring a Harry Kalas impersonator (Joe Conklin?) to do PBP when he retires, but McCarthy is pretty good. I still kinda miss Scott Graham, though, but my guess is he’s not enough of a yes-man to work for the Phillies.
One might wonder: How could someone possibly be alive after being a Phillies fan for most of the Phillies’ history? Hell, Beaty could have been a fan for about 8,000 of the franchise’s losses; how is she even alive?
Still, Beaty has only been a Phillies fan for the last two or three years. “You just see a game [on TV] and have nothing else to do with the time and you get attached,” she said.
Ahh, that makes sense. Turning to the Phillies only out of boredom should get you to 104 with very few heart attacks or manic episodes. I’m still looking for an explanation of how Harry Kalas’ head hasn’t exploded, though.
Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. After splitting the first two games of the Marlins series, the Phillies stand at 9978 losses, only 22 away from 10,000.
The Phillies are never going to top .500. The 23-23 Phillies have hit the .500 mark at 20, 21, 22 and 23 wins, but have lost the next game each time. The Phillies, though, have kept creeping back up to .500, including an 8-7 10 inning win last night.
But, right. Last night’s ninth inning could leave the Phillies in trouble for a couple of weeks. The Phillies scored three in the top of the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth, two bloop singles and a triple made it 7-5. Hanley Ramirez grounded to Greg Dobbs, who threw home instead of taking the easy out at first. Dobbs was remorseful:
“I’m sick to my stomach,” said Greg Dobbs, who was responsible for one of the two defensive lapses. “I want to eat, but can’t. I feel tremendously responsible for that inning because we should have had three outs.” [...]
“I wasn’t,” he said. “Quote it. Print it right on front page. ‘What was Dobbs thinking?’ I saw it all happen right in front of me in super slow mo. As I released the ball, I went ‘whyyyyyyyyy. What are you doing?’ I should’ve taken the ball and either tagged Ramirez or gone to the bag, instead of being way too aggressive. It was just stupid. Afterward, I was so disgusted with myself that I just started walking in circles, thinking ‘Did I just do that?’”
As you may have gathered from the photo of the Phillie Phanatic attacking President Bush in the header, it’s the start of baseball season today. Naturally, everyone’s excited, because we all know the Phils are going to start 4-14 and nobody will care anymore.
And with fan interest at the highest it’s been since, uh, since I can remember, the Phillies have decided to reward fans by giving them what they want: More cowbell Wheeler.
The trio will broadcast the first three and last three innings on television. Wheeler will handle play-by-play in the middle three innings, with [ex-Phillie Gary] Matthews as the analyst.
[Harry] Kalas will continue to call the fourth inning on radio. Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen will work exclusively on radio.
“Oh!” you’re probably saying right now. “Harry Kalas and a bunch of dogs. Must be the Phillies! Did Spring Training start yet?” Well, no, sadly.
But this time the dogs aren’t the Phillies. No, this time the dogs are aww wittle bitty cutesy tiny wittle puppies! Yes, for at least the second straight year, Harry Kalas announced the Puppy Bowl. Yes, the Phillies announcer took time out of his offseason duties — assumedly full with Campbell’s Chunky Soup recordings, NFL Films highlight reel announcing and sticking pins in his Chris Wheeler voodoo doll — to record an intro for Puppy Bowl III.
The now-annual event was won by, ah, who cares. Let’s just get to Harry the K talkin’ ’bout puppies!
The old Monday Night Football intro music is a nice touch, too.
