On the Air
by Laura Nachman
Bucks County Courier Times
www.bradyresidence.com/channelsurfing.html
March 31, 2006

When Phillies announcer Scott Graham was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, he took the subway to watch games at Veterans Stadium.

Today, Graham, 40, continues to move up the Phillies broadcasting ladder. For the first time he will do the play-by-play for the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings on television this season.

Graham, who already does play-by-play on the radio for the first three and last three innings of each game said: “It's incredible. You can quote me on this. It's exciting just to be part of it.”

Graham, who many feel is the heir apparent to Harry Kalas, has slowly but surely increased his responsibilities with the Phillies, since he began doing post-game shows on 1210-AM in 1990.

For those who feel Graham doesn't compare to the Hall of Famer, Graham agreed.

“I'm no Harry,” he said. “It is an incredible relationship between the fans and an announcer, and that's exactly how it should be.”

Graham is putting together his own impressive body of work. Since coming to town as a college freshman in 1983, he's been on the Philadelphia scene. He's received national exposure doing baseball and football on Fox and college basketball on ESPN.

Today, besides the Phillies, he does college basketball and football games and does voice-overs for NFL Films.

“For a kid who watched "This Week in Pro Football,' to grow up to get to do the show, it's unbelievable,” he said.

Married for 15 years to his high school sweetheart, Jill, Graham is the father of three sons — a 12-year-old and 9-year-old twins.

Field of 64

The big surprise in this week's Field of 64 occurred in the radio bracket. No. 10 seed Ray Didinger upset No. 2 seed Angelo Cataldi.

So we can get to a Final Four for next week, please e-mail your winners in each bracket. Here are last week's winners:

PHILLY ANNOUNCER

(1) Harry Kalas (over Larry Andersen) vs. (4) Jim Jackson (over Tom McGinnis)

(3) Marc Zumoff (over Steve Mix) vs. (2) Merrill Reese (over Tom McCarthy)

PHILLY TV

(1) Michael Barkann (over Neil Hartman) vs. (4) Don Tollefson (over Beasley Reese)

(3) Vai Sikahema (over Phil Andrews) vs. (2) Gary Papa (over Ron Burke)

PHILLY RADIO

(1) Howard Eskin (over Al Morganti) vs. (5) Anthony Gargano (over Brian Startare)

(6) Glen Macnow (over Jim Rome) vs. (10) Ray Didinger (over Angelo Cataldi)

NATIONAL ANNOUNCER

(1) Joe Buck (over James Brown) vs. (4) John Madden (over Greg Gumbel)

(11) Bob Costas (over Jim Nantz) vs. (2) Al Michaels (over Dick Enberg)