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| The Phillies broadcast team in the 80's. L to R: Richie Ashburn, Andy Musser, Harry Kalas, Chris Wheeler. Courtesy: Philadelphia Phillies |
We are less than a month away from the Phillies Alumni Weekend, where they will add two more plaques to the Wall of Fame. Jimmy Rollins and Former GM Ed Wade will go up on the wall. While they are both deserving, I'm here to tell you there are two glaring omissions from The Wall. Two longtime Phils broadcaster should be up there. The late Andy Musser, and Chris Wheeler.
The Phillies had never included broadcasters, until Harry Kalas was added to the Wall in 2009, deservedly so, of course. Hall of Fame Announcer By Saam isn't even on the Wall. That needs to change too. But By is before my time, so I'll let that one go...by.
But let's talk about Musser and Wheeler. Andy Musser may be the most underrated broadcaster Philly has ever had. He was never fully embraced by Phils fans for one simple reason...he wasn't Harry. Harry Kalas overshadowed everyone. I don't say that as a negative or a knock on Harry. I idolized that guy growing up, and he is one of the reasons I wanted to be a broadcaster. But Harry was just so damn good and so beloved, that many fans looked at Andy as a second banana.
With Kalas and Musser, we had TWO world class play-by-play guys. Look at Andy's career. He was with the Phillies from 1976 through 2001. He also did Eagles games in the 60's. He was so good at doing football, that he actually did the play by play for Super Bowl VI and Super Bowl VIII for CBS Radio. He probably would have done Super Bowl VII as well, but NBC Radio had the rights for that game. Musser also did basketball, both pro and college. He was the TV voice of the Sixers for a while on Channel 17, while still working for the Phillies. He also did Villanova Men's Basketball on the radio for many years. Point is, this was a really talented guy. And those of you who are old enough to remember 1980 and the Phillies remarkable run to their first World Series title...who can forget his great call of that Mike Schmidt home run in Montreal? "Long drive to left field...he buried it! He buried it!" Wheels told me on The Convo podcast that Andy was actually upset with himself after the fact, because "buried it" is a basketball term. Wheels told Andy it was an amazing call, and it was. To me, it's not just one of the great Phillies calls of all-time, it's one of the great BASEBALL calls of all time. Andy Musser should be on The Wall of Fame, and truthfully it should have happened years and years ago.
Now let me get to Wheels. I know these days "Wheels" is Zack Wheeler, but the OG Wheels is Chris Wheeler. Think about this...Harry Kalas did Phillies games for 38+ seasons. Wheels is right behind Harry at 37. 37 years! How is Wheels not on the Wall? And if you factor in his years with the team in the PR Department before he got on the air, we're talking 42 years. From 1976 until 2013, Wheels did games on both radio and TV, and he did both play by play and color commentary. It's rare for someone who didn't play the game professionally to be a color analyst, but Wheels knew so much about the game that he had the credibility of an ex-player in the booth. He could break down a play with the best of them. And let's talk about talent and versatility. To be able to smoothly transition from the play by play guy to the analyst, often in the same game, is not easy. But Wheels made it look and sound easy. To me it was a travesty the way he was let go from his job, shortly before Spring Training began in 2014. He deserved better. He certainly deserved to go out on his own terms, and he deserved a chance to say goodbye.
In the 90's MLB had something called "The Baseball Network". It was a collaboration between MLB, ABC, and NBC to broadcast the games nationally. Besides the usual network announcers...Al Michaels for ABC and Bob Costas for NBC, MLB tapped some local team broadcasters. For the Phillies, it was Wheels. So he got to do play by play for Phils games that were seen in multiple markets. Wheels was a real talent on the air, and a nice guy off the air. If you have time, go back and watch Tim McCarver's Hall of Fame speech on YouTube, He acknowledges Wheels, and the impact he had on his career. While you're on YouTube, go back and watch my Convo podcast with Wheels. He tells stories about training McCarver, and lots of other great stories too.
The only proper ending to Wheels' story with the Phillies, is to end up on the Wall of Fame. Harry Kalas is up there. Richie Ashburn is up there as a player. The other two guys in the photo above should be there too. Andy Musser and Chris Wheeler. Even when the Phillies looked awful, those two guys made them sound good.