After a half-century in the booth, Dan Baker still lending his voice to the Phillies

With all these recent Phillies years in the wilderness, surely Dan Baker wondered: Would his voice ever be heard at a World Series again?

Never mind the Phillies, with all Baker himself had gone through ...

Nope, no, said Baker, the Phillies public address announcer of a half century. He believed, fully. (Not this year. Didn’t see this coming, Baker said. He’s not claiming magical clairvoyance.)

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He just takes nothing for granted, Baker will quickly add, even if the man himself sounds remarkably the same.

“After you have cancer, it’s something that you monitor for the rest of your life, basically,” Baker said.

After you have 24 surgeries and 30 radiation treatments, after a tumor is found in your right maxillary sinus, after you miss the 2020 season from all that, Baker will confirm, you feel especially blessed to still be at this.

Tuesday night, Baker did his thing as Citizens Bank Park rose toward another pregame fever pitch, his voice almost drowned out as Baker began a recitation of the Phillies’ World Series Game 3 starters.

His thing is always an understated part of a Phillies show, that voice providing a familiar, carefully-enunciated in-person soundtrack since long before any current players were born.

“It’s my 51st season, but I’m calling it my 50th year,” said Baker, who has been the dean of Major League Baseball’s public address announcers for some years now, third on the all-time list.

In many ways, this might be Baker’s own personal greatest World Series feat, although he prides himself on not playing favorites, with Phillies eras or players.

“There are certain names that lend themselves to a more melodic interpretation,” Baker said. “The polysyllabic names.”

Raaa-uuuuul . . . E-bannnn-yesssss

“He’s going to be here tonight,” Baker said of that favored pronunciation of the previous Phillies postseason era, and sure enough, Raúl Ibañez, now Major League Baseball’s senior vice president of on-field operations, was part of a pregame ceremony, Baker giving him the old treatment.

Of these current Phillies, which does Baker consider a particularly melodic name?

“Number ten, catcher J …” Baker pauses. … “T” … Pauses again. … “Re-al-muto!”

What’s it like to be back?

“That’s what you live for,” Baker said. “This is my sixth World Series. The Phillies have only been to eight.”

The all-time list in his profession is topped by Pat Pieper, who worked the Wrigley Field PA system for the Cubs for 59 seasons, from 1916-74. Yankees legend Bob Sheppard was next with 57 seasons, from 1951-2007.

“He was 97 when he retired [announced his last game],” Baker said of Sheppard.

Does Baker, now 76, see himself shooting for tops on the all-time list. Is he gunning for Pieper?

“If the Phillies will have me, and God blesses me with good health, and I can continue to perform at a high level, I’d like to take a shot at it,” Baker said.

“The Phillies were so encouraging — ‘We want you back, this job is yours,’” Baker said. “I love it here so much. I met my wife here.” Two children had worked at the ballpark during college — “both born in World Series years.”

The relief that his primary working instrument was largely unaffected had to be real.

“Well, it was affected to some degree, in that, I also lost all the teeth in my upper right side, and I can only open my mouth about a third as wide as it should go,” Baker said, sitting in an empty Hall of Fame Club at Citizens Bank Park about five hours before the first pitch. “I’m very very fortunate. I can’t talk quite as well as I could before, but I can get darned close.”

In conversation, put it at 97%. On the PA, the man remains quintessential Dan Baker.

“Of course, I’ve lost nothing of the enthusiasm, the knowledge of when to emote, when not to emote, when to talk, when not to talk,” Baker said. “I think I still enunciate pretty well even with the physical changes in my mouth.”

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There’s something else Baker brings to the job that might be a little more rare for his profession. He can be almost soothing when that trait might be helpful. For instance, Monday night when rain forced Game 3′s postponement.

Did Baker hear the boos from the concourse?

“It wasn’t too bad,” Baker said, although he can’t hear every single sound in his glass booth. “I think people sensed it was going to happen.”

Baker had a script, taking fans inside the stadium and out on the sidewalk through the procedures in place.

“If you noticed, I threw in an apology,” said Baker, who is in strong contention for most polite man in Philadelphia sports, all-time.

”Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for any inconvenience.”

“That was an ad-lib, but I cleared it [with the Phillies]. I felt bad,” Baker said. “You had people who drove hours to get here; they had to turn around and go hours back. We appreciate the loyalty of the fans.”

He’s heard people say these postseason Phillies crowds, including Tuesday’s when the Phillies won 7-0 to take a 2-1 series lead, have been the loudest ever. He’s not denying they are loud. The Phillies took Baker and his wife Cathy to Houston as their guests. Not close, he said, “and that’s with the roof on.”

“It’s right up there, I’ll say that,” Baker said of how this stacks up historically. “But this is my sixth World Series.”

He’s seen some things, heard some things. They all get crazy.

“When the Phillies won their first-ever World Series in 1980 across the street at the Vet — oh my goodness,” Baker said.

And when he can summon cheers with the sound of his own voice — “It’s music to my ears,” Baker said of the roars that still accompany a life’s work.