FOR SOME REASON I thought of the ending of the movie The Last Samurai the day before Harry Kalas died. Maybe it was the cherry blossoms floating off the trees in a sun swept April breeze Sunday afternoon. I thought of Ken Watanabe, the actor who played Katsumoto, the last samurai of the title, who dies heroically in a cavalry charge with swords against modern warriors armed with cannon and gattling guns. In life his final vision is of a battlefield with cherry blossom petals floating down. He takes in the scene in one tear-filled moment, and dies with the word "Perfect" on his lips.
Harry Kalas was a warrior of many Philadelphia summers who died in the springtime on a battlefield in Washington D.C. where cherry blossoms were falling even as he prepared to do battle once again from the broadcast booth with his Fightin's . And like the Gambler in the Kenny Rogers song, after almost 40 years of calling Phillies play-by-play, Harry Kalas "broke even." His team was even on the year -- exactly .500 with three wins and three losses. But unlike any other team, his Phillies are world champions of baseball. And somewhere in the darkness, Harry must have whispered, "Perfect."
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