Chillin' Wit' Chris Wheeler, former Phillies broadcaster

PHILLIES FANS have on occasion stopped in their tracks and pointed to Chris Wheeler. They hesitate, then say: "Hey . . . hey, you're Harry Kalas!"

To which Wheeler replies, "Now, that would be a big story."

Wheeler, a/k/a "Wheels," is recounting this yesterday, somewhere around the eighth hole at Blue Bell Country Club in Montgomery County, where he's playing a round of golf.

He did color commentary and called play-by-play action for 37 years until 2013, when Comcast, in a $2.5 billion TV deal with the Phillies, dropped both Wheels and Gary "Sarge" Matthews.

Wheeler, who will turn 70 on Aug. 9, says he's not bitter, and he's turned the page. These days, his title is "Phillies Ambassador," and his work goes from meeting with sponsors to dropping in on the Club Suites to schmooze.

Out on the green yesterday, he's with friends Ann Brasko and Robert Conti, and his honey of 25 years, Renee Gosik, 57.

"I'm so at peace at a golf club," Wheeler says. "I'm not on the phone. I'm not checking emails. Golf, to me, is my happy place."

But . . .

"Well I did bring the phone today to check the game," he says, referring to the Phillies matchup against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. (The Phils won, 11-5.)

He also talks Phillies, asking the others, "Did you see Hamels?" referring to pitcher Cole Hamels' no-hitter against the Cubs on Saturday. "[Renee and I] were watching it, and I told her around the first or second inning, 'He's dialed in today.' "

On days like that, he admits, he wishes he were back in the broadcast booth. Wheeler, who started with the team in PR, was at Wrigley in April 1972 when Cubs pitcher Burt Hooton pitched a no-hitter against the Phils. "Hypothetically, if I had been doing [Saturday's] telecast," he says, "I would have gotten into stories about that no-hitter."

His father, Christopher H. Wheeler, used to ask him what he'd do with that sharp memory. Wheeler wishes that his dad - who died when Wheels was 19 - had lived to see his success with the Phils. He's happy that his mother, Teresa Ferry, did. Wheeler was born in the Yeadon area and attended Marple-Newtown High School, where he played baseball. He graduated from Penn State in 1967 and today he funds a scholarship in its College of Communications.

Gosik and Wheeler met in 1990 when she was a Phillies usher, and he asked her out. They're both Penn State alums, and in their basement they keep a Christmas tree year-round with Nittany Lions ornaments. Their 12-year-old Shih Tzu is named Nittany.

- Regina Medina