Larry Eugene Andersen (born May 6, 1953) is an American former

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weather d ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

and current radio

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and th ...

for the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citize ...

. From through , Andersen played for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

(1975, , ),

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion team ...

(–), Philadelphia Phillies (–, –1994),

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

(–),

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eig ...

(1990), and

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...

(–).

Playing and coaching career

Andersen possessed an average

fastball The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. " Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have t ...

and outstanding slider. He was drafted out of high school in the seventh round in 1971 by the

. He signed immediately. In 1972 in his first full season he played for Reno of the California League, going 4-14, with a 6.53 ERA in 124 innings, with a 1.80 WHIP. He gained notoriety for his 1990 trade to the Red Sox straight up for minor league prospect

Jeff Bagwell Jeffrey Robert Bagwell (born May 27, 1968) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and Coach (baseball), coach who spent his entire 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) playing career with the Houston Astros. Originally a Bost ...

. Andersen played a month in Boston. In a 17-season career, Andersen posted a 40-39 record with 49 saves and a 3.15 ERA in 699

games pitched In baseball statistics, games pitched (denoted by Games G in tables of only pitching statistics) is the number of games in which a player appears as a pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the Baseball (ball), b ...

. His best season was when he recorded nine

wins WINS may refer to: *WINS (AM), an all-news radio station in New York City *WINS-FM, a radio station in New York City *World Institute for Nuclear Security *Windows Internet Name Service *WINS (solution stack), a set of software subsystems *Wireles ...

, 94 strikeouts, and 101

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one inning ...

in 67 games, all career highs. He is the only member of the Phillies to play in both the 1983 World Series and the

1993 World Series The 1993 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) season. The 90th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the defending World Series champion and American League (AL) champi ...

(

Darren Daulton Darren Arthur Daulton (January 3, 1962 – August 6, 2017), nicknamed "Dutch", was an American professional baseball catcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies (, –) and Florida Marlins (1997). While with ...

had been called up in September 1983, but did not make the post-season roster that year). Andersen during the 1982 season pulled a prank on manager Rene Lachemann during a series in Chicago. Referred to as the ‘Mr. Jello’ caper, Andersen, along with teammates Ritchie Zisk and Joe Simpson moved all the furniture in the hotel suite into a bathroom, filled both toilets with jello and removed the mouthpiece from the phone. The trio were not revealed as the culprits until after the season ended. On May 13, 1986, he was released by the Philadelphia Phillies. Three days later he was signed as a free agent by the Houston Astros, who released him on November 12. On December 21, 1986, he was signed as a free agent by the Houston Astros, who released him on November 9, 1987. In , Andersen was a player/coach for the

Reading Phillies Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling) ...

after he failed to make the Major League club out of

Spring Training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives estab ...

. He spent the following two seasons as the pitching coach for the

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (often abbreviated to SWB RailRiders) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. They are located in Moosic, Pennsylvania, in the ...

Broadcasting career

Andersen joined Philadelphia's broadcast team as a color commentator prior to the season, filling the position left vacant by the death of Richie Ashburn late in the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

campaign. Andersen worked on both television and radio from 1998 to 2006 before moving exclusively to radio in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

. Early in his broadcasting tenure, Andersen occasionally provided television color commentary when the Phillies were featured regionally on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

Saturday afternoon telecasts. During the 2007 season, he began doing

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present In linguis ...

work on Phillies radio broadcasts during the fifth and sixth innings, but returned to full-time color commentary in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

. During his broadcasting career, Andersen said, "In the seventh inning fans all get up and sing ' Take Me Out to the Ball Game,' and they're already there. It's really a stupid thing to say and I don't know who made 'em sing it. Why would somebody that's there get up and sing take me out to the ball game? The first person to do it must have been a moron." The moron in question was fellow broadcaster Harry Caray. In 2012, Andersen was ranked #12 on the

MLB Network The MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox Co ...

Countdown of the Top 25 personalities in

history.Countdown takes a look at the top 25 personalities
''MLB.com''. Retrieved on April 24, 2016.

References

External links

Larry Andersen
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Larry Andersen
at Baseball Almanac
Larry Andersen
at Pura Pelota (Venezuelan Professional Baseball League)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andersen, Larry 1953 births Living people Bellevue Bulldogs baseball players Bellevue College alumni Boston Red Sox players Cleveland Indians players Gulf Coast Indians players High Desert Mavericks players Houston Astros players Major League Baseball broadcasters Major League Baseball pitchers Minor league baseball coaches Oklahoma City 89ers players Baseball players from Portland, Oregon Navegantes del Magallanes players Philadelphia Phillies announcers Philadelphia Phillies players Portland Beavers players Reading Phillies players Reno Silver Sox players Salt Lake City Gulls players San Antonio Brewers players San Diego Padres players Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons players Seattle Mariners players Tacoma Tugs players Tiburones de La Guaira players Toledo Mud Hens players Williamsport Tomahawks players Baseball coaches from Oregon American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela

Playing and coaching career

Broadcasting career

References

Further reading

External links