Sarge, Wheels out as Phillies broadcasters

In a surprise move, Gary Matthews and Chris Wheeler are out as color commentators for the Phillies. Rob Maaddi of the AP first broke the story, and the team acknowledged the move.

Wheeler had been a Phillies broadcaster for 37 years, most of it with Harry Kalas; Sarge had been in the booth for the past seven seasons.

Tom McCarthy will reportedly continue in his role as play-by-play man.

Both men will remain with the organization in other roles, per a team statement:

"As the longest-tenured member of the Phillies broadcasting team, Chris Wheeler will return to his club roots after stepping down from his role as a Phillies broadcaster. With 37 years of broadcasting experience, combined with his front office background where he began his Phillies career, ‘Wheels’ will take on a new role allowing the organization to continue to benefit from his knowledge, experience and dedication to the game.

"Additionally, Gary Matthews will continue to work with the Phillies bringing his exceptional background as a major league ballplayer, broadcaster and commentator to new roles at the Phillies."

Neither Scott Franzke nor Larry Andersen will take their place, instead remaining in the radio booth.

Potential replacements, according to the AP, could be former closer Brad Lidge, former catcher Chris Coste, or former closer and current postgame analyst Ricky Bottalico.

5 more spring training invites

The Phillies on Wednesday invited five more players to spring training: lefties Jesse Biddles and Mario Hollands, right-handed fireballer Ken Giles, catcher Sebastian Valle and third baseman Maikel Franco.

Phillies finalize staffs

The Phils also finalized their minor-league staffs. The two most notable changes are the addition of Rob Ducey to the Double-A staff and Mickey Morandini's shift from Lakewood manager to Lehigh Valley coach.

Comments

[NEPP]

***‘Wheels’ will take on a new role allowing the organization to continue to benefit from his knowledge, experience and dedication to the game.***

What the hell does that even mean? Will he hang out with Dallas Green and BS all day to collect a pay check basically?

[NEPP]

Maddux, Glavine and Frank Thomas elected to the HOF.

[GTown_Dave]

Wow. I'm in complete agreement w/ this year's class of inductees to the Baseball HoF. That's a welcome change from the usual angst.

[NEPP]

Biggio just misses out and Morris is off the damn ballot FINALLY

[Redburb]

Biggio at 74.8 percent. Two votes shy.

[The Truth Injection]

Sucks for Biggio. But all three guys that got in deserved it big time.

Hard to believe The Big Hurt is going to the HOF already.

Sarge's role with the team will be his own hat store that will be next to Bull's BBQ. The idea is the Phillies want to create an entire strip mall of former players stores.

[bay_area_phan]

My favorite part of HOF day is when they release the full voting and you find out that one or two nut-jobs voted for someone like J.T. Snow or Armando Benitez.

[RT]

Too bad they didn't clear out the entire broadcast team.

[NEPP]

I cant imagine putting Morris on the same ballot as Glavine and Maddux and apparently a lot of voters agreed with me. Maybe if neither of them were on the ballot, he'd have had a chance. Moose and Schilling were two other superior pitchers on the ballot. Hard to say a guy is deserving when he can barely crack the Top 5 on his HOF ballot.

[awh™]

"I understand why people hate TMac but objectively he is better than Wheels and Sarge and has improved in his time with the Phillies."

TTI, are you one crack? That's not a very high standard to surpass. Keep your commentary to baseball issues so you don't lose credibility.

TBag stinks.

[Meyer]

Where's davethom73?

[D Pat]

The 3 new H of F'ers certainly deserve it.

When the most best about our baseball team over the winter is a new TV deal and that there are changes coming to the broadcast team, that isn't much to get excitied about, is it?

[The Truth Injection]

awh: I'm impressed you composed a post without highlighting a completely arbitrary window of time.

I wasn't saying it was a high bar to cross- just mentioned it. Also, objectively, he has improved in his time with the Phillies. I didn't say he was good or great. Just that he has improved to some degree.

So read some things before flying off the handle will ya.

[Redburb]

I get why people don't like T-Mac but he's there to appeal to the casual fan, not the hardcore fans.

[Ribbies]

I'll miss Wheels, he was the last link to the old days. And if changes were going to be made how the hell did McCarthy miss the chopping block?

[awh™]

TTI, the word "improved" should never be included in the same sentence with these words: "Thomas McCarthy", "TMac", "Tom McCarthy", or "TBag".

The reason is that one could give a false impression that there is something positive about hearing him blather on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on...

when he should just STFU already.

[Meyer]

Casual female fans who purchase piles of merchandise appear fascinated by T-Mac from my observations.

[awh™]

Congrats to Maddux, Glavine and The Big Hurt.

All great players... all well deserved.

[Dickie Thong]

Matt Gelb (‏@magelb)
"The new broadcaster will be a Comcast SportsNet employee, not Phillies. That is a direct change from new TV deal."

[NEPP]

Rube: But you said I could keep my broadcast team!

Comcast: I am altering the deal, pray I dont alter it further.

[awh™]

Let me go on record as stating I like the idea of someone fresh in the booth like Coste or Lidge.

I'm also not a Ricky Bo' hater like some here.

IMHO, just about anyone would be an improvement from Sarge.

I understand why some here didn't like Wheels, but he at least did his homework and is knowledgeable.

I wonder if Comcast wants someone who's willing to be fair? What I mean by that is someone who will praise players and management when they do well, and not hold back criticism when they come up short.

[awh™]

Hey, what about bringing back Mitchiepoo?

[bay_area_phan]

"Maybe if neither of them were on the ballot, he'd have had a chance."

This was an uncommonly good ballot: 3 no-doubt Hall of Famers with no taint of PEDs. So Morris probably wasn't getting in no matter what. But we're also beginning to see an unintended trickle-down effect of the "PED users won't get my vote" mindset. Basically, you've got enough writers to block any PED users from getting elected, but not nearly enough to knock them off the ballot altogether. And if they're still on the ballot, a substantial number of writers are going to vote for them, which squeezes out other deserving candidates, including ones with no PED connections.

[awh™]

"I get why people don't like T-Mac but he's there to appeal to the casual fan, not the hardcore fans."

RedBurb, it is possible to do both, no?

[Meyer]

I'm kinda hoping they hire someone who can speak Japanese.

[Redburb]

I'm just happy Morris is finally off the ballot so dumb @ss writers can stop propping up his case year after year after year.

[rich allen 15]

Would have enjoyed Scott Graham back and have TMAC go back to the mets where he belongs !!!!!

[Redburb]

awh - Who would you recommend?

[Dickie Thong]

Whoever it is, they will have to wear the wrong shirt on occasion to keep up the wardrobe malfunction bit.

[awh™]

Redburb, I agree on Morris.

He had a couple of incredible postseasons, and deserves credit for that, but I think those postseason performances cloud a lot of writers' judgments, as his overall career was solidly above average, but not good enough to be included with the likes of Seaver, Carlton, Spahn, Feller, Young, Koufax, Johnson, et al.

[NEPP]

A couple years back, they should have left Bert Blyleven and Jack Morris in a room with a broken pool cue and had them fight it out with the winner getting in.

Neither belong in the Hall but somehow the pity vote was enough to get Blyleven elected back in 2011.

[awh™]

Redburb, do you want a specific name or a type?

[HammRadio]

Congrats to Tom Glavine who's 7 run 1/3 of the first inning on 9/30 against the Marlins basically gave us the first Division title 14 years. Makes up for the standing ovation we gave him at the Flyers game in 2003 when the Phillies courted him as a Free Agent.

Congrats to Frank Thomas picked 7th in the 1st round of the 1989 June Draft. 3 spots behind the Phillies Jeff Jackson who played in exactly 666 Minor League Games.

Congrats to Greg Maddux for being the better brother in "Phillies always have the worst brother" tradition.

[MG]

Never disliked Wheels as much as others did and I'm really glad Sarge is gone. 4th-6th innings may actually be tolerable to listen to again for the first time in a few years.

Sarge was the worst color analyst the Phils have had since I was old enough to remember broadcasters. Maybe Maddox but for different reasons.

[Redburb]

awh - Agreed with your 2:32 post. Morris became this weird rallying point for some writers. He was a very good pitcher, no doubt. Just not worthy of enshrinement in my opinion.

[GTown_Dave]

According to TMac, baseball only has two pitches: "fastball" & "breaking ball". I'll concede the man has "improved" when he demonstrates an ability to recognize & convey even the most basic elements of the game.

[nick]

About time. Philly games were very boring to watch and listen to with these clowns broadcasting.

[Redburb]

awh - There are only a handful of really good play by play guys that appeal to both the hardcore and casual fans.

T-Mac isn't what we want because we grew up with one of the best in Kalas. That's the standard he will always have to live up to.

Having said that he does talk too much and gets overly excited. But he is far from the worst play by play guy in the league.

[The Truth Injection]

That should be right up your alley then GTown with the amount of baseball acumen you show.

[awh™]

For the new sidekick in the broadcast booth (since we're stuck with TBag) I'll toss Doug Glanville's name into the hat. I've always liked him.

[ColonelTom]

After the Darth Vader quote from NEPP, it seems perfect to vote for this guy, who would be a really good choice. He's outspoken and is willing to make negative comments. Of course, that's why he won't be considered.

[MPNPhilly]

NEPP got all Vespin Cloud City Vader on us there. Nice.

[Meyer]

T-Mac is perfect for the coming years. Fake laugh will play better to the audience than someone who knows too much and can't help blurting out a real uncontrollable laugh.

[Redburb]

Vespin?

[MG]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/greg-maddux-tom-glavine-frank-thomas-elected-to-hall-of-fame?ymd=20140108&content_id=66395522&vkey=news_mlb

I agree with BAP that my favorite is always the completely random votes some guys get.

Jacque Jones is hands down the winner this year.

[NEPP]

I believe Vespin is located right next to Bespin in the Anoat System.

It's pretty far but I think we can make it.

[aksmith]

repost from last thread:

I wonder if this will hurt Wheels' chances of accepting the Ford Frick award in Cooperstown in a Phillies cap?

I had and have no problem with Wheeler. He is, as has been said, someone who bleeds Phillies baseball and has great historical sense of same.

But Sarge and McCarthy turn my stomach. Literally. McCarthy knows nothing about baseball and sounds like a computer generated "excited" voice. Sarge made me sick thinking of all the phlegm one human can produce and speak through. Along with the fact that other than "hitting against his front foot" he added zero to the games. And lastly, Greg Murphy in the stands is about where he should be. But without a microphone.

Were the Phillies smart, they would simply simulcast the radio broadcast, as has been suggested above. And since that's what I listened to all last season on the internet feed, nothing would change for me.

Posted by: aksmith | Wednesday, January 08, 2014 at 02:40 PM

[MG]

I'm a little surprised that Kent was so low. He was a largely a douche who was disliked by fans in multiple cities but he is one of the best offensive 2B of all-time.

[Redburb]

smitty - If you listen to the radio broadcast excusively, why do you even care about who the TV announcers are?

[MG]

Sarge's lack of preparation was clear as day. He was your classic ex-athlete turned color analyst who showed up at the ball park without doing any prep work on the opposing team or the broadcast.

[norbertods]

Any truth to the rumor that Glavine's plaque will be 6" wider than everyone else's?

[Dickie Thong]

>> Vespin?

Vespin is a two-piece, high-efficiency toilet made by ToTo.

[aksmith]

Redburb - Because I'd rather not have to listen to the radio feed. It slows down my internet connection because, apparently, MLB broadcasts both audio feeds if you choose the radio feed and simply masks the TV audio feed.

And why do I care anyway? Because it's sort of like caring that the last player on the bench isn't Minimart. Yeah, he may not play much, but just knowing he's there kills a little bit of my baseball enjoyment.

[NEPP]

***I'm a little surprised that Kent was so low. He was a largely a douche who was disliked by fans in multiple cities but he is one of the best offensive 2B of all-time. ***

He was a heavily suspected juicer...he'll never get in.

McGwire's percentage plummeted and Palmeiro was dropped from the ballot. Sosa almost got knocke off too...13 fewer votes and he's gone.

[The Truth Injection]

Who the hell votes for Jacque Jones?

Edgar Martinez is and always will be an interesting HOF case to me. I know he didn't play defense after a few years (cause he was bad) but how do you ignore those offensive numbers?

A career line of: .312/.418/.515/.933 and a 147 OPS+.

[Joe D]

well played, norbertods.

[Richard Nixon]

I wonder if Frank Thomas is available to put some punch in the lineup? R00b?

[GTown_Dave]

awh™: Agreed RE: Glanville. I'd also be interested to hear Juan Pierre's insights, although he (apparently) hasn't yet hung 'em up.

[Joe D]

As far as the broadcast team I'd be fine with either Coste or Lidge. Coste has done solid work in the past in his pregame show appearances. Lidge always presented himself as a smart guy with a very level head. He constantly took the heat for his terrible 2009 and never made excuses. I wouldn't mind Dougie G either....always liked him and he has those UPenn roots.

T-Mac is obviously the guy who should have been canned. He is insufferable and always will be. Hopefully they can get someone knowledgeable to sit beside him so we can sift through the mindless blabber with an occasional slab of intellect.

[Tom McCarthy's mother]

I think Tmac is an absolutely wonderful announcer!

[aksmith]

That was not McCarthy's mother. I happen to know she actively campaigned to get him canned.

[Iceman]

Ricky Bo as a potential replacement?

If he gets the job, years of speculation will be confirmed when MG mysteriously disappears during game threads this season.

[Dickie Thong]

Dorothy McCarthy is a saint!

[bay_area_phan]

I'm sure if you asked the guy who voted for Jacques Jones, he would say that he did it for some symbolic reason, even though he knew Jones had no chance of getting in. On the other hand, how do you account for 6 different writers voting for Hideo Nomo -- a guy with a 4.24 career ERA and exactly 4 seasons with an ERA+ above 100?

[aksmith]

Haven't seen a lot of Ricky Bo, but when I have seen him, he sounds very much like someone who never played and never watched a game. No insight and a lot of bluster.

Did I just catch him on a couple of bad nights?

[Meyer]

RB sounds and looks like he never removed his jock strap from little league.

[awh™]

Wow, I can't decide who should win the thread:

Smitty at 3:17 or norbertods at 2:56.

Tough choice.

[aksmith]

awh - I vote for Norbertods. I actually laughed out loud at his post.

[DJ Sarge]

Atleast we'll always have these:

http://youtu.be/U7vD5uAA55M

http://youtu.be/aAJibeR_ZuM

[Bedrosian's Beard]

Phillies unable to fire someone without offering the obligatory job somewhere in the organization.

[Tim]

Too late for Scott Graham but Richie and Harry are smiling now.

[limoguy]

Lidge might be good, but who knows? Has he ever done it? Even so, just with his obvious intelligence, he would probably would make T-Mac look as dumb as a brick comparatively. Not that T-Mac needs any help with that. I don't think Ricky Bo works in that slot. He's ok where he is though. Haven't seen enough of Coste to say one way or another.

[TheMick]

Since I was late getting this on the last blog I just wanted to finish my thoughts on the responses my Aaron post generated.

Clout: You help make my point that several Braves were juicing in that time period, as House has said. Johnson never came close to 41 HR's again and I believe it's still the single season record for 2nd baseman. Nah, he wasn't doing nothing was he...gimme a break.

There were many distortions of the post I made like NEPP comparing Aaron's age 20-29 seasons to his age 30-39 seasons as it related to OPS. I specifically cited Aaron's age 35-39 seasons and limited it to his HR's. I obviously haven't seen every players stats who ever played the game, but show me one other player who hit more HR's in his age 35-39 seasons than any other 5 year consecutive period in their careers. I know of none. If someone does please post it and show me I'm wrong. Most of the seven players I listed had their careers overlap with Aaron, with Thome being the obvious exception and Schmitty just starting out when Aaron was finishing up.

I won't discuss this again with people who are so closed minded on a subject to not even consider the possibility that Saint Hank could have been looking for an edge, like every other player who played the game. One joker Will Schweitzer said I'm disqualified from making any other PED comments in the future. For your info Cuz, I have more practical and first hand knowledge of steroids and HGH than you know. To make a moronic blanket statement like that only shows your ignorance You don't know me or the things I've been through.

Since this is an anonymous forum I have no problem admitting that in my 20's I did three different kinds of Testosterone (cyponate, propionate & sustanon), Anadrol, Anavar, Deca Durobolin, Dianabol, Equipose, Stanazalol, Trenbolobe, Winstrol-V Tabs and more. I owe no explanations, but I was arrested and looked like I might do a few years inside. I was determined to be as big & strong as possible if that was the outcome. In my 40's I competed at the national and international levels of power lifting but hadn't juiced in over 10 years, which was the requisite for the federations I lifted in. I was piss tested in 8 of my 12 contests and never pissed dirty. The gyms I worked out at weren't singles bars, they were hard core power lifting gyms. Though my juicing days were behind me I saw everything there. Believe me, I forgot more about the subject than you'll probably ever know.

To those of you who tried to engage in a baseball discussion and just disagreed with me, I thank you for keeping the talk about the post, player and the game.

And finally to the Beerleaguer Elite's, I guess my file just got a whole lot thicker.

[Tim]

Here's hoping Monty butt smoocher Scott Palmer doesnt get the job.
If only one person is hired they just saved a salary. Wheels' salary alone was considerable.

[Edmundo]

Sarge's role with the team will be his own hat store that will be next to Bull's BBQ. The idea is the Phillies want to create an entire strip mall of former players stores.

Wow, TTI FTW. He does have a sense of humor. /ducking

[Edmundo]

Congrats to the three winners. They certainly deserved it without question. Maybe next year Pedro and the Unit plus Biggio and Piazza, assuming that Bonds and Clemens remain in Writer's Purgatory.

[Richard Nixon]

Glad Morris finally got flushed down the crapper. I still remember the 1990 CY balloting when Bob Welch got all the 1st place votes, Clemens got all the 2nd place votes (or almost all I forget), and Morris got 1 3rd place vote 'because he won 15 games!' (despite an ERA of 5 or whatever...)

[Bubba]

God save us all if they put T-Mac and Murph together in the booth for 6 innings every game.

We'll be longing for Wheels then , like we are now for Harry and Ritchie.

[Ruben Amaro, Jr.]

15 wins should be an automatic Cy Young! I don't understand how the voters screwed that up!

[Dickie Thong]

Morris had 254 wins. How did he not get in? #sarcasm

[awh™]

TheMick, try this:

After he turned 35 Ted Williams hit 184 HR in 2579 PA. 13.7/17.6

After he turned 35 Henry Aaron hit 245 HR in 4053 PA.

Aaron hit one HR every 16.5 PA. Williams hit one HR every 17.6 PA.

Was Williams - who hit left-handed, retired in 1960, and hit in a primary ballpark that is deep in RF - using steroids?

Ty Cobb in his age 25 - 29 seasons, had 2861 PA, 132 doubles, and 73 triples. During his age 30 - 39 seasons, he had 2753 PA, 169 doubles, and 50 triples. was he juicing from ages 35 - 39?

[awh™]

Oops, the above numbers for Cobb were for his 35 - 39 seasons.

[awh™]

Oh, and Mick, their respective slash lines for their age 35 - 39 seasons were

Williams .337/.477/.624

Aaron .282/.376/.539

Cobb .360/.434/.512

Juicers all, no?

[Dragon]

My two-cents on the Phillies broadcast change: 1- They should have cleaned house and canned T-Mac as well (the guy makes my ears bleed). 2- If there is a way to find worse, more grating broadcasters for the TV booth, Comcast and the Phillies front office will do it.

[awh™]

Been surfin' b-r.com.

I found another juicer for The Mick. Honus Wagner, just based on what he did from 35 - 39, he HAD to have been juicing.

[awh™]

Wow, George Brett, based of "TheMick Criteria" could have been juicing too.

Never a big HR hitter, he hit 2B at almost the same rate from his age 35 39 seasons as he did from his 25 - 29 seasons.

Hmmmmm.....

[awh™]

Wow, I'm finding juicers galore in the HOF.

Some dude named Eddie Collins [ :) ] put up a slash line of .335/.442/.434 during his age 25 - 29 seasons of, and then put up a slash line of .344/.438/.440 during his age 35 - 39 seasons.

[Phillibuster]

Heard the news and had to stop on by...

Honestly, I don't think Ricky Bo and TMac are a winning combination. Sure, Bottalico would include enough manufactured outrage to please some of the never-to-be-pleased crowd, but he seems to genuinely get angry way too easily (just recalling some of the post-game lives where he had "disagreements" with Marshall Harris), which only seemed to get worse the later it got at night.

Coste's a possibility, as is Lidge (although he seems like he could be a bit introverted for that work).

One of the nice things about being such a "storied" franchise is that we've got a pretty wide range of options for our potential former-player color guys. We don't have to go with never-was hacks who juiced like FP Santangelo.

[Phillibuster]

Although if they did go with Bo, at least ZWR would have lots more Esotericky Bottalico posts.

[GTown_Dave]

My prediction is that, should Bottalico get the nod, the combination of TMac/Ricky will be even more widely disliked than the combo of TMac/Sarge.

[Who am I?]

From my age 25 - 29 seasons, I put up a lash line of .333/.391/.446 with 147 doubles, 37 triples, and 38 HR.

From my age 35 - 39 seasons, I put up a slash line of .352/.393/.493 with 171 doubles, 5 triples, and 55 HR.

Who am I? Was I juicing?

[Dickie Thong]

>> Who am I?

awh.

[A-Train]

Didn't like Sarge as an announcer. Could take or leave Wheels. T-Mac is OK for a couple of innings but all game long is WAY too long. Liked it much better when they boys switched from TV to radio and back. Franske is by far the best but I understand he'll stay on radio which is a shame. As far as color replacements go, I'd be fine with Lidge, Coste or Bo but not Glanville. I've seen clips of him while he was working in Chicago and I think he's boring.
I'd actually love it if they lure Todd Kalas away from the Rays. Not sure if he'd come or not but he's very good.

[Who am I?]

Dickie, awh did not play MLB baseball.

[MG]

TMac isn't going anywhere. He signed a 5-year deal initially in 11/07 and was reupped after the '12 season for another 5 years.

What I find kind of funny was how low-key the Phils were about the TMac extension including never even making a formal announcement about it on their website.

TMac is unpopular with the fan base on the whole and the FO knows it. If was popular with the fanbase, the Phils definitely would have made a formal announcement and trumped it.

[Dickie Thong]

OK, the TMac extension now surpasses Howard's as the worst.

[Who am I?]

"OK, the TMac extension now surpasses Howard's as the worst."

Uh oh, not Howard's contract again?

[Who am I?]

For those of you who care, my name is...

Tony Gwynn, Sr.

P.S. I also won 3 batting titles in each of those periods.

[MG]

From my age 25 - 29 seasons, I used 14 bottles of jheri curl with my hair reaching its absolute sheen in '88.

From my age 35 - 39 seasons, I consumed at least 3 donuts daily and my favorite was the old-fashioned bear claw.

Who am I?

[MPNPhilly]

NEPP: Its pronounced Vespin in Austria..... d'oh