By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Philadelphia Phillies announcer Harry Kalas had countless unforgettable in-game calls during his Hall of Fame announcing career. But perhaps the most important moment of his legendary career came in a pregame monologue.
Following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Kalas played a big part in welcoming the baseball world (and the country) back to the sport, less than a week later:
"From the cradle of liberty – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Do we have closure? No. No, the heinous acts of terrorism last Tuesday will be with us for as long as we all shall live. We have earned a greater respect and love for the men and women of our fire departments, our police departments, our emergency rescue squads…they're all Americans, we are proud to be Americans. We must never resort to the thinking that created Tuesday's acts of terrorism…they were born of hatred – we as individuals, we as a nation must never hate. More than ever before, we must stand together and live by his words – love one another. Here at Veterans Stadium, we see various displays of nationalism and patriotism. And let us always remember, that above all else, love one another, love thy brother.
Yes, baseball will go on. It won't be the same – it will be a long time before it is the same. But sports has always been a diversion from our everyday problems, and in this case, from a national tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers and our hearts go out to the families and to the friends of the victims of the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Color Guard is now coming out on the field. We see waves of people here at Veterans Stadium, standing united, regardless of race, color or religion. They're all together as members of the United States of America.
We're proud to be Americans – baseball is our national pastime. We're proud to be small pieces of our national pastime, and we want to see it continue.
You can hear in the background, chants of 'U-S-A!'. Yes, Americans will now perhaps become more united than ever before, and probably now we won't need it more than any time that I can ever recall."
Normally you don't transcribe an entire monologue, but there really wasn't one part of Kalas' moving post-9/11 thoughts that you could leave out.
Throughout the speech you could see the raw emotion that Kalas had after one of the worst tragedies that the world has ever seen. He was visibly choked up and holding back tears when discussing first responders, while also acknowledging that the country didn't have closure and it would take some time for closure to come.
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As Kalas continued to speak, the camera panned around Veterans Stadium, beginning to give you some sense of normalcy and hope. Forget the fact that the Phillies were competing to make the playoffs for the first time since 1993 – you saw a 27,910 people united, with symbols of America all over a stadium that was named after veterans and had a giant Liberty Bell at the top of it. You don't get much more patriotic than playing baseball in an environment like that.
As we remember 9/11, Kalas' wise words not only help us to remember those that America lost that day, but they can serve as some sort of guidance as we look to help various regions of the country recover from recent natural disasters.
