April 13, 2009

ASHINGTON (AP)—Radio and TV broadcaster Harry Kalas, whose baritone delivery and signature “Outta here!” home run calls provided the soundtrack to Philadelphia baseball for nearly four decades, died Monday after collapsing in the broadcast booth before the Phillies’ game against the Washington Nationals. He was 73.

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

Familiar to millions of sports fans outside Philadelphia for his voiceover work with NFL Films, “Harry the K” was beloved at home. Since 1971, he was the man who was the bearer of news—good and bad—to those who followed the losingest franchise in major professional sports.

“Players come and go,” Phillies radio broadcaster Scott Franzke said, “but ‘Outta here!’—that’s forever.”

When the Phillies won their second World Series title last fall, Kalas—who normally called only the middle three innings on radio—was in the booth for the last out of the clincher. He then joined the on-field celebration, grabbing a microphone to sing Frank Sinatra’s “High Hopes.”

The son of a Methodist minister, Kalas graduated from the University of Iowa in 1959 with a degree in speech, radio and television. The Naperville, Ill., native was drafted into the Army soon after he graduated.

In 1961, he became sports director at Hawaii radio station KGU and also broadcast games for the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League and the University of Hawaii. Kalas was a member of the Houston Astros’ broadcast team from 1965-70 before joining the Phillies.