The voice goes silent

Andy Musser, right, before a Philadelphia Phillies spring training game with Richie Ashburn, left, and Harry Kalas (David Schofield photo)

Longtime Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster Andy Musser passes away 13 years ago today in Wynnewood, Pa. He is 74.

The smooth-talking and ultra-professional Musser, the pride of Lemoyne, Pa., builds an outstanding radio career that includes work with the Super Bowl, The Masters and the NBA.

While his time with the Phillies often is overshadowed by larger-than-life Hall of Famers Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn, the seemingly always in sync trio of the ever-steady Musser, Kalas and Ashburn provides the soundtrack to many a summer night for Philadelphia baseball fans.

Andy Musser, right, in 1956

Musser, a bat boy in the early 1950s for the minor league Harrisburg Senators, gets his career going in 1956, when as an 18-year-old senior at Lemoyne High he wins a regional contest for budding broadcasters.

The prize: Calling part of a Phillies home game the next season with another set of legendary announcers, Gene Kelly (center) and By Saam (standing).

“I couldn’t have envisioned this,” Musser later says of parlaying a 1956 contest into a career.

“I still pinch myself, because I’ve been so fortunate,” Musser says with a laugh. “The only one more fortunate than me was Richie Ashburn. He never worked a day in his life. He went from the playing field to the booth to the pine box.”