Kalas' son recalls final meeting

WASHINGTON - The impulse was not a typical one for Todd Kalas. A broadcasting job with the Tampa Bay Rays and life in Tampa kept Harry Kalas' eldest son busy, and he did not often appear unannounced at the Phillies' spring-training facility in Clearwater, Fla.

So it remains difficult for Todd, 43, to understand why he drove to Clearwater on April 2. It was the final day of the Phillies' 2009 spring training and, it would turn out, the last time Todd saw his father.

"I don't know why, but I felt it was necessary to be at that game and spend a few minutes together afterward," Kalas said yesterday, just more than 24 hours after his father collapsed in the press box Monday in Washington and later died at the age of 73.

Since the elder Kalas' death, baseball fans from across the nation have shared memories of the broadcaster as a warm and generous baseball fanatic. Yesterday, Todd Kalas recalled the same qualities in his father. Though Phillies fans often approached Harry Kalas while the broadcaster was with his family, Todd Kalas said his dad always enjoyed the interaction.

"He was incredibly compassionate to everyone he met," Todd Kalas said. "He didn't just give people a quick handshake or brush-off. He was consistently generous with his time. I try to live up to that, and I can't always do it."

Harry Kalas never pushed his son into a sportscasting career, but was helpful and encouraging when Todd decided to pursue the field as a student at Syracuse University. "He was very proud," Todd said. "He was a leader by example. If I had a question, he would always answer it."

Todd Kalas worked for the New York Mets and the Phillies before taking a job with the Devil Rays, now the Rays, before their inaugural season in 1998. Now that his father is gone, Todd can hardly believe the opportunity the pair shared in October, when the Rays and Phillies played in the World Series.

"I think there was something else at work for that to happen in what turned out to be his last season," Todd Kalas said. "The odds were one in a million of the Rays and Phillies playing each other in the World Series, and for that to be our final season together. . . . We really cherished every moment we had together during that time."

Kalas said that, despite the long and sometimes tedious nature of a baseball season, his father's enthusiasm for the game, like his graceful treatment of others, never waned.