Skip to main content

Sunday School: Phillies History Lesson 71

By
Gene Kelly was the radio voice of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1950- 1959. Born in Brooklyn NY, Kelly pitched in the minor leagues after graduating from Marshall College in 1941. He would soon experience arm trouble, which ended his playing days. Kelly managed to continue a career in sports by turning to radio.

When legendary announcer By Saam, who pulled double duty beginning in 1939 calling both Phillies and Athletics games, moved over to the A's side exclusively, Gene Kelly was the man who would fill the void and took over as the Phillies play-by-play man.

The Phillies began broadcasting their games over the air in 1936, but until the 1950's, the broadcasters only attended home games and did not travel with the team. All road games were recreated, on the air, by the announcers who read a Western Union teletype account of the games from the studio in Philadelphia.

During the decade of the 50's, Kelly was partnered with several different broadcasters, including Claude Haring, Bill Brundige and George Walsh. In addition to the partner switches, the lineup of flagship stations was on regular rotation as well.

Kelly, who varying reports list at either 6-feet-7-inches or 6-feet-8-inches tall, spent his off-seasons calling action for the Philadelphia Warriors NBA team.

In 1959, Kelly was fired by the Phillies and would move to Cincinnati to call Reds games for a few seasons. Kelly would also continue to call basketball as well as college football and later returned to Philadelphia to become the sports director for an upstart TV station, channel 48.

Late in his career, Kelly had suffered a stroke and was left unable to do certain everyday tasks, including driving. A young future Philadelphia broadcasting legend, who wanted to do anything he could to get closer to the business, offered to drive for Kelly at no charge. That young man's name was Merrill Reese.

Kelly passed away in 1979.

____________________________________

Follow PhoulBallz.com on Twitter HERE.


BallHype: hype it up!
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Good summation of Gene Kelly's career. He was a first rate broadcaster who has never received the recognition due him. He replaced By Saam in 1950 and never missed a beat. Within two weeks of the season Saam was, not forgotten, but not missed either. Later, in '55 when Saam rejoined the Phils, they made shared broadcasting duties.

As you note, health problems cut his career short in Cincy and later ventures. Nonetheless, he was a terrific baseball play by play man and deserves recognition.
January 30, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Anonymous said…
As I understand, his real name was not Gene Kelly. Am I correct? I remember listening to him and By Saam in the 1950's when I just started getting interested in sports. Used to listen to all the Phillies games from my home town of Wyoming, PA.
March 15, 2011 at 7:45 PM
Anonymous said…
ANONYMOUS: YOU ARE CORRECT. HIS REAL NAME WAS NOT GENE KELLY. IT WAS EUGENE SLATER THIS I KNOW BECAUSE HE WAS A RELATIVE OF MINE.
June 16, 2011 at 11:31 PM
Anonymous said…
To the relative of Gene Kelly, I came across an old scorebook of the 1953 phillies. Gene Kelly's personal scorebook. It is really cool, for some reason, unless pages ripped out, he doesn't start keeping score till June 24th, 1953. He has every game after that though, including the 1953 world championship between the Yanks and the Dodgers for which he kept the book. reply if you are interested in getting in touch with another..(765)426-8708
April 7, 2014 at 10:01 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lidge Shaky, T-Mac Honored in Trenton

By
TRENTON, NJ- Brad Lidge made his second rehab appearance for the Double A Reading Phillies on Thursday night and it didn't go as well as the veteran reliever or the team had hoped. Lidge struggled with his command and turned in a rather poor outing for the club that entered the night in a playoff race, 1 game behind division rival Trenton for the Wild Card spot in the Eastern Division. On the disabled list since spring training with a strained right rotator cuff, Lidge experienced an elbow strain when he was working back from that issue in late May. In his outing against the Yankees affiliate in Trenton, Lidge displayed difficulty with his control as he threw three wild pitches, hit two batters, walked another and gave up a single, all while letting up two earned runs on 28 pitches in 2/3 of an inning. After the disappointing performance, Lidge was composed and focused on some positive aspects, having reached 89 and 90 MPH on scouts' radar guns, according to some reports. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jason Knapp Q&A

By
PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...
5 comments
Read more

Eric B Needs to be Cut (and My Name is Rakim)

By
While the Phillies are on a hot streak this month, one player on the team is not. Eric Bruntlett is 1-for-12 in July. Since the start of May, Bruntlett's apex in batting average has been .167 on June 14th. Bruntlett's ineptitude can be tolerated no longer. Get rid of this guy NOW! Eric B. is the 2009 Endy Chavez. Remember Endy...the guy who in 2005 managed just 2 hits in his final 42 games played as a Phillie? That is about the sort of output the Phillies are getting from Bruntlett, and it's time to fix this void. Julio Lugo was designated for assignment last week by the Red Sox and is expected to become a free agent. The Metropolitans are rumored to be interested. Why wouldn't the Phillies be interested in a guy who could surely outhit Bruntlett? Lugo was hitting .284 through 37 games played this season with Boston. Suspended Lehigh Valley IronPig Pablo Ozuna is eligible to return next Wednesday. Ozuna is batting .294 through 51 games at triple A. Miguel Cairo is also...
6 comments
Read more