It’s been more than a week, yet it remains difficult to listen to a Philadelphia Phillies broadcast without feeling the loss of Harry Kalas, the voice of the team for almost 40 years.

The man all fans referred to simply as “Harry” died April 13 while preparing for that day’s game broadcast from Washington D.C. between the Phillies and the Washington Nationals. Sympathies have come from across the broadcasting, baseball and other sports worlds.

Harry was a class act, genuine, caring and extremely talented. He earned his berth in the Hall of Fame.

There have been many great sports broadcasters, both play-by-play announcers and color analysts. Names such as Vin Scully and Harry Caray come to mind, as do the names Ernie Harwell, Jack Buck, Grantland Rice, Mel Allen and Red Barber.

Philadelphia sports teams have had their great announcers, too -- Gene Hart with the Flyers and Bill Campbell with the Phils, 76ers, and the Eagles, and, of course Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn.

The list of great sportscasters is as long as sports have been broadcast, regardless of the sport. Yet there is something special about a baseball broadcast.

It’s a combination of things, the pace of the game and the length of the season, but a baseball broadcast, and a baseball broadcaster can’t be separated from the game.

The regular season is 162 games long now, so even someone who isn’t a fan will hear at least some parts of many games throughout the summer. The voice of the team becomes known.

That voice is with the fans from youth to old age. Those among us who played the game – at any level – listened intently whether from a Cub Scout picnic, a day at the beach, a long drive in the car, or even a short drive home from a sometimes boring supervisors’ meeting.

Baseball means warm weather, and the voice that brings us the game, who gives us insight into how the game should be played, is as welcome as those first warm days of spring. The voice keeps us company through summer’s sunshine and storms and into those cooler days of early fall that are the portents of winter.

But with baseball, the hometown voice becomes a friend, someone who wants what we want, a homerun, a win and a world championship.

Harry Kalas was that friend, a great one even to those who never met him personally.

Two of the many stories that have surfaced since Harry’s death tell us about the reach he had throughout the baseball world. There was a celebration following a Phils’ game in Pittsburgh, the day Mike Schmidt hit his 500th career homerun. As the team was leaving the clubhouse, they all stopped as Harry came in with a recording of his call. They – the players -- had to hear it from Harry.

But Phillies players weren’t the only ones who respected him. During interleague play there was a series with the Yankees. As the story goes, there was a knock on the broadcast booth door before the game. The broadcast team opened the door to see two Yankees – Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez – standing in the corridor carrying baseballs and asking for Harry’s autograph.

Harry Kalas was the voice of the Phillies, a friend to the fans and a Hall of Fame broadcaster for 38 years. He was one of the greatest and he will be missed.