PHILADELPHIA -- Why have the Phillies played Harry Kalas’ rendition of “High Hopes” at Citizens Bank Park following every win since 2009?
Here’s the story:
First, let’s start with the obvious. The legendary Hall-of-Fame broadcaster loved it. Frank Sinatra first sang the song in the 1959 film “A Hole in the Head.” Kalas connected with the tune about ants and rubber tree plants, famously singing it in piano bars across the National League for decades.
“I was loosening up [my voice] in various piano bars across the country,” Kalas told The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., in 2002.
Kalas sang the song to Phillies players in the visitors’ clubhouse in Pittsburgh in 1993 when they clinched the NL East. He sang the song again at an NLDS pep rally in 2007 after the Phils snapped a 14-year postseason drought by winning the division.
He sang it again in ’08 when they won the World Series.
Kalas sang the tune at end-of-season parties with Phillies employees at Veterans Stadium, even when they finished in last place. He once sang a “hushed” version of the song to Tug McGraw in a Tampa, Fla., hospital in March 2003, when McGraw was battling brain cancer.
It was upbeat. It was hopeful. It was Harry the K all the way.
When Kalas died on April 13, 2009, the Phillies thought the song would be a fantastic way to honor him. They first played video of him singing “High Hopes” during the seventh-inning stretch before moving it to postgame following Phillies victories.
“It’s amazing how many ways they still honor and remember and pay tribute to my father,” Kalas’ son Kane Kalas said in 2024. “Every game I attend, I have extra incentive to root for a win because I can hear and see my dad singing ‘High Hopes’ up on that screen. That’s actually a video from a family trip to Hawaii, so it brings back fond memories.”