Summer will never be the same. I won't be sharing it with Harry Kalas.

A few weeks ago, I asked staff writer Tim Logue to see if he could line up an interview with legendary Phillies broadcaster and longtime Delaware County broadcaster Harry Kalas.

That interview appeared in our Sunday paper on opening day. I had a specific headline that I wanted to appear on the story: The Voice of Summer.

The truth is I wanted the interview for another reason. I was getting worried about Kalas. He had battled a couple of health problems this year and was not in the booth at the beginning of the Phils exhibition season in Clearwater.

I was wondering if possibly this might he Harry's last year.

It will, but not for the reason I feared.

Harry Kalas died yesterday after collapsing in the press box of the Nationals stadium in Washington, D.C., where the Phillies were due to play a game this afternoon. He was 73.

I have long been of the opinion that baseball is a game best listened to on the radio. That's how I learned the game from my dad. When I asked him about this odd habit, about why he would rather listen to the game on radio than watch it on TV, he would always respond the same way: "I can see the game better on the radio."

It is a love he imparted to his son. There are not many things I enjoy more than sitting out on the porch on a thick, humid summer evening and listen to a Phillies game on the radio.

I will continue to do that, just as I did when we lost Rich "Whitey" Ashburn a few years back. But it won't be the same.

The voice of summer is gone.

Rest easy, Harry. You always said that one day you would rejoin your old pal.

Heaven now has the best announcing team in the reunited pair of Kalas and Ashburn. No doubt they'll be listening to the game today.

No one in this region who considered him or herself a fan will ever listen to a Phillies home run without thinking of Harry Kalas and his signature call.

We won't ever hear the distinctive "Outttheeere" again.

The voice of the Phillies is gone.