The Josh Innes Show - Harry The K Drama in Philly

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

So the bar named for Harry Kalas at Citizens Bank Park is changing names and Harry's widow is not happy. First off, let's talk about stadium naming rights and figure out of if any stadiums having naming rights deals that people care about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, everybody. Welcome in, all up in this podcast. Oh, hello Americans. I'm Paul Harvey. Good day. So, um, anywho, I'm glad you guys have been enjoying the podcast. I was reading this story out of Philadelphia about Harry Callis's widow, who's really pissed off that they changed the name of the bar out in the outfield from Harry the Kay's, which I'm always baffled by Harry. Callis' nickname, how he's just known as Harry the K.

I get the bit. I think it's a play on Murray the K, but still whatever. So she's super pissed that they change the name of this. Like to the point that like she almost sounds kind of cuckoo. I don't know how old this woman is or anything, but she sounds cuckoo. But let's play a couple commercials and get into this drama. All right, this story is from awful announcing. The widow of iconic Phillies radio and TV voice, Harry Callas, says the team's decision to remove the Harry the Kay's sign in Citizens Bank Park is a betrayal.

Let's see how they've betrayed Harry Callas. Harry the Cays has been a name given to an area and left field at Citizens Bank Park since its inception in 2004. Callis was the voice of the Phillies from 1971 until his death in 2009, and it was considered a tribute to his legacy that would presumably stand the test of time. But that is not the case. The Phillies recently announced they had sold the naming rights to the area to energy drink ghost energy. As such, there is no more Harry the K's. It is gone.

Goodbye. And let's start there. Like, there were ways you could have done that to keep Harry the K's, put a naming rights deal on it, but keep it Harry the K's. Because when you've had something in any building for 20s. 20 plus years people grow attached to it and it's going to have a negative backlash. Like at the end of the day, like who really gives a shit that this, like this basically, it's an awning. It's Harry the case. It's an awning that hangs over a bar.

Like big picture is it a huge thing? No. Is it the end of the world? No. But it's one of those things where like why would you invite negative publicity? Right? Like why would you invite an opportunity for people to be angry? about something.

You know what I'm saying? Like, what would be the point? Right? Like, you don't have to do that. Like, obviously, you want to make some dollars, and I get that, and every place in the ballpark is there to make money. Nothing is sacred in any of these stadiums. Like, people like to look back on stadiums and, like, think about their youth and about

how great shit used to... None of that shit's the case. It's all signage. It's all overpriced beers and shit. It's all overpriced hot dogs. It's ridiculous, glutinous. delicious many times, treats. I mean, it is what it is, right?

So, like, I try not to grow too attached to shit inside of a stadium or even the naming rights of a stadium. Like, there will come a day when Citizens Bank Park is no longer Citizens Bank Park because there will be a new naming rights deal, right? That'll happen at some point. And people will get all worked up over it and be upset. Can you believe it's not Citizens Bank Park anymore? Like, it's a naming rights deal.

You know, I'm in Detroit. Camerica is the name of the baseball stadium. Camerica Park. It's named after the bank. There's a chance that it ends up being changed to like fifth third bank park or some shit. And there were people that were kind of outraged over it. And there's no meaning behind that name. It just so happens to be the first naming rights deal that was on the stadium. Therefore, you always associated with that. It's like Dakin Park, right? People are like, can you believe it's not Minutemate Park? I'm always going to call it Minutemate Park, is if Minutemate Park represents anything other than a naming rights deal. All it is is a naming rights deal. There is no. name on it that's a person. There's no history behind it. It's just they were the people who spent the most money at the time to put their name on the stadium and now somebody else is spending the most money to put their name on the stadium. And that's it. So I saw that a lot with Staples Center when it changed to crypto.com arena or whatever. And they're like, can you believe it? Staples centers were Kobe and Shaq. Well, that's great. It was named after an office supply store.

Very few stadiums have any meaning, right? Like there's Dodger Stadium. That still has a little meaning. And I'm sure there's like a naming rights on the field. I'm not positive on that. But like to me, and look, I'm biased in this. But like the Cardinals, Cardinals guy here, right? Love the St. Louis Cardinals. Bush Stadium.

And the backstory on why Bush Stadium is Bush Stadium is fascinating, too. The long and short of it is, August Bush, owner of the Cardinals at the time when they were playing in Sportsman's Park, wanted to change the name of the stadium to, like, Anheiser or to two, Budweiser Park. And baseball was like, no, you can't have a naming rights on your stadium after a beer. So what did Gussie Bush do? Well, Gussie Bush, the owner of the St. Louis Cardinal, said, well, hold my beer. I'm going to create a new beer.

That beer is called Bush Bavarian, and our stadium is going to be called Bush Stadium, and that is going to be to promote Bush beer. Right? That is baller. But that said, so if Bush... stadium changed its name in St. Louis, I think there'd be an outrage because there's still an association with Anheuser-Busch, the biggest thing that's ever come out of St. Louis. The owner of the team for many, many years, was the brewery and Bush beer and the Bush family.

So there's history. It wouldn't make sense and it wouldn't feel right for there to be a stadium called anything other than Bush Stadium in St. Louis. There are certain places like that that don't make sense, right? I'm trying to think of other examples of stadium. Because really the only thing you can think of is stadiums and arenas, I don't think a lot of us know the inner workings of these ballparks and know every ballpark and every quirky little area they have, right? Like if they change the name of the Crawford boxes in Houston to something else, maybe that would piss people off. But, you know, like very few things. You know, I mean, look, you see it in Houston at Minutemade Park or Dakin Park or whatever it is. You know, you change the name from Torchies tacos or whatever in the outfield.

to the pluckers or whatever the hell it is. Like, people don't really give a shit about most of that stuff, as long as you still have the things that are important to the history, the statues, the Wall of Fame, like that type of shit. But I'm trying to think of stadiums that if you ever change their name, it would be a huge deal. And not just locally. Like, I know people are all worked up in Houston about, you know,

the Minutemate Park thing. But big picture, that's a nothing burger, right? Like, that's a nothing burger situation. It's one corporate naming rights deal going to another, and that's it. There's no history. There's no meaning. There's no person behind it. There's nothing, right?

I'm trying to think of stadiums where that would make sense. I think a good example, and this wouldn't matter because, I mean, but the United Center, people associate the arena in Chicago with United. It's the United Center. And it'd be weird if it ever changed its name, but it's still just an airline. Well, here's one for you. So the forum in Los Angeles in Englewood where the Lakers played for seemingly 100 years. It was called the Great Western Forum. My entire childhood, I just assumed that that was like a braggart title.

Like, this is the Great Western Forum. Like it is great and it is in the West and it is the Great Western Forum. No, it's named after a bank. That ruined the illusion for me because I was really into that. I'm like, yes, the Great Western Forum. No, it was just named after Great Western Bank. But I'm trying to think of other examples. Stadiums that if they change their names, people, and there's Wrigley Field, but no one's going to change Wrigley Field.

That would never be the case. Like Fenway Park will always be Fenway Park. Dodger Stadium will always be Dodger Stadium, although I do think there's a naming rights on the field. PNC Park. That's the only name that it's had in Pittsburgh. But if it went from PNC Park to Iron City Light Field, like it's just, it's just, it's, People might be upset about it in that town, but it's not going to be one that changes the landscape of the world, right? None of these are, right?

To me, and again, I'm playing Homer to a degree, but I think Bush Stadium would be maybe the one example of that. Because, yes, it's a naming rights deal, but it's a name, it's a family name. It's the people who used to own the stadium. It's a very unique scenario. Not the state. I mean, there used to be Jacobs Field, and now it's whatever the hell it's called. Cleveland. I don't know.

I don't think there is. Like even the places that have really cool names like Mile High Stadium is now Invesco Field at Mile High or the naming rights deal, the, Gaya or whatever the hell it's called, that now is Arrowhead Stadium, Gia, whatever the hell that thing's called. That one. There really aren't a ton of these things that are just sacrilege anymore because people know what this is. They just know it's a naming rights thing. But this is a unique situation in Philadelphia with the Harry the Case thing because, again, ultimately, does it really matter? Is the world going to change that some bar in a ballpark doesn't have an awning outside that says Harry the K's anymore? No, but it's one of those things you didn't have to do, right?

There was no need for this to happen. It's something that was avoidable because now you have to do with backlash. Now you've got the widow of one of your most prominent figures in your franchise's history, Harry the Callas, the voice of the team for damn near 40 years. and you've pissed her off. And now that she's pissed off, the fans are pissed off, and they were pissed off anyway. And there was no reason. Like if you're going to do something that's going to piss off your clientele, it needs to have a reason behind it. And yes, the money is the reason.

But you very well could have just gone. It's what the hell is that ghost energy deck. It's Harry the K's at Ghost Energy Deck. That's all you had to do. And you could have gotten your money on it, and that's it. But I think what they wanted was, and I guess part of it is, if you're going to spend the money that Ghost Energy is spending, I think they wanted the entire name. So when you said it, you weren't just saying, hey, I'm going up to Harry the Case, because that's what people would have kept saying.

Harry the case, Harry the Case. They wanted the name to be synonymous with them. So, hey, I'm going up to the Ghost Energy deck, as if anybody's going to fucking call it the Ghost Energy deck anyway. I think that's misguided by Ghost Energy, although they're getting a ton of run right now. But it's bad for, I don't know that it's horrible for their business. I don't know that it's crippling or anything like that. But I do think it's a negative and you don't want to bring a negative upon yourself if you don't need to. If I'm ghost energy, I'm trying to understand the history of Harry Callis and I'm trying to understand the history of that venue inside the ballpark.

That's what I'm trying to understand. And I want my name to be synonymous with something positive. I don't want my name and my brand to be associated with something negative that's pissing people off. And people are getting pissed off at the idea of this, this. bar. Again, at the end of the day, it's a bar inside a stadium that's really just an awning. It's an awning that hangs over like this little area at the ballpark. Big picture, it's not that big of a deal. But what you've allowed yourself to do now is make it a negative. And that's the dumb move. That's the idiotic move from the team. So anyway, so we need to get into what the wife is saying.

Now, the widow is not pleased about any of this right now. And I read the, I read the some of this yesterday. Jilly was actually reading some of this to me. I know that makes me sound like an invalid, but I was sitting on the couch and she started reading this out loud to me. Old school style. I would love it if Jilly would be on the podcast every day just reading me shit so I can react to shit every day. My life is a lot easier when that happens. And who knows, maybe if we relocate at some point, get a better home studio or something, maybe we'll go back to doing it together, which I would be very much in favor of because, you know, I like to react to shit instead of just, you know, reading shit to you and then responding to it.

But actually, let's do this. So now that we've kind of broken down the naming rights shit, and again, I'm trying to think of other examples of naming rights deals that would really rattle the earth, you know. Like if, you know, Yankee Stadium became, you know, T-Mobile Park, that would be a big deal. But, I mean, hell, look in Seattle. The original name of it was, what was the original name of the ballpark in Seattle? Shit, I don't remember. I feel like I should know that. It was, it's T-Mobile now.

but the original name was, I can't believe I don't remember that. I feel stupid, not remembering. But anyway, point being in all of this is that name has changed a couple times. The ballpark in San Francisco's changed a couple times. Chicago's changed a couple times. Miami's changed a couple times. No one gives a shit. So those things don't really matter to people that much anymore, but this one does.

All right. So let's actually get into the stuff with Harry Callis's widow. Let's do that. So let's end this episode and then actually get into the stuff about, Harry Callis's widow and what she had to say.