Harry Kalas is known for having the most distinctive, soothing voice in all of baseball broadcasting. Most are unaware that the baratone lends his skills to the NFL during his "offseason." The Philadelphia treasure performs radio broadcasts for NFL games and will be calling today's game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New Orleans Saints.
Kalas' broadcasts are hardly "normal," as he likes to put his mark on the calling.
"Well, the first thing is that I never really liked how the field had two of every yardline so I improvised," said Kalas.
He is referring to his trademark of using yard markers one through one hundred. That is to say in Kalas' football world there is a 55 yardline, a 65 yardline, a 75 yardline, a... you get the point.
"I feel using 1-100 makes it much easier for the listeners. He's at the 70. He's at the 80, He's brought down at the 87 yardline."
This is the first year Kalas has used the full 100 yard markers during his play calling and it has been welcomed with huge fanfare.
"By doing this Harry has really revolutionized how a football game is broadcast. He has started a bit of a trend," said Gary Speager, President of NFL Radio.
The trend Speager refers to is the fact that announcers at CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN and NFLN have attempted to use his signature yardline calling. Joe Buck, the first team NFL announcer at FOX, copied the style last week with little success.
"During the game I kept forgetting which endzone I designated as the 100 yardline and a lot of viewers noticed and wrote, called and emailed complaints," said Buck.
At one point Buck became so confused that he was using negative numbers.
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