Let’s Celebrate a Decade of Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen

It might surprise some, but Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen are now celebrating a decade together in the booth this season. Hard to imagine. They’ve called some of the worst, and some of the best – hey, nobody will ever forget that 2008 season – and now in this brilliant piece by Joseph Santoliquito, they look back on their 10 years together.

Things don’t always work out, but it’s a great thing that this “arranged marriage,” as Andersen calls it, worked out. In good times and bad, there’s always been one constant the last decade – Franzke and LA.

The two might not know how admired they are by the masses, whether it be on social media or the guy or girl next to you at the game listening on the radio just so they can hear them. They’ve become an integral part of the broadcast. The mute button has never been hit more times in this market than it has been in the last decade. That’s not to slight Tom McCarthy, et al. Those guys do good work in a tough job. But there’s something so much more natural with Franzke and LA. And Santoliquito delved into that.

That took a while for me to realize I was part of the broadcast and I had something to add. With Scott, this was an arranged marriage that has worked out well. They picked the right people and you can’t get divorced from it, unless you want to walk away from your job. You make the best of it, and I’ve been one, to my playing days, to coaching, to this, to have fun. You have to enjoy what you do. It’s why you’ll hear us talk about it a lot with Freddy Galvis and Maikel Franco taking infield, those guys are having fun out there. They’re enjoying it. I want to have fun doing what I’m doing. I certainly get cranky and I can be a little overbearing—and Scott knows it, and I know it. I said to Scott, ‘If I’m saying something, don’t be afraid to tell me.’ He does.”
 
Franzke concurs.
 
“They had ‘warned me’ about LA; they said he’s a really funny guy and that I would really like him,” Franzke said. “They wanted me to bring his personality out on the air, and originally for me, it was a lot of learning about Larry and getting that personality out. My first impression of Larry was that you could see right away he is a funny guy and he has a great way with people. They’re drawn to him. He’s the life of the party, and I don’t mean that in the sort of drunken caricature way, although he’s been there a few times (they both laugh). He likes to have fun; he values life and values friendships. He values a good time.

Franzke isn’t a “Philly guy.” He was born in Dallas and worked with the Texas Rangers before coming to Philly. But, listening to him and Andersen on the radio, you wouldn’t know that. Yeah, he’s not a “Philly guy,” but he’s a Phillies guy. And that’s good enough for me. Franzke opened up a bit to Santoliquito,

We have to spend a lot of time together, and that’s what it is. We realize that we have lives outside of this. We have good days and bad days. We’re friends; we’re there for each other. We don’t poke or pry. This job is an awesome job, though it has a lot of challenges. It puts strain on relationships, including this one. What made it work I think is what Larry said about trust. I was the new guy back then; I had to trust Larry a lot. I was an outsider, not only to the broadcast crew but to the market.
 
“What makes it work is I know that Larry and I have a similar philosophy, a similar sense of humor and similar belief in the way to do a broadcast. I think that helped the product. We’re not two competing elements doing this. At the end of the day, we both take the product pretty seriously and we don’t take ourselves very seriously. We can punch and jab and make fun of each other. We like to have a good time with the game, but we also have a certain reverence for the moment that’s happening out on the field, because that’s what it’s really about. We’re the conduit to that for a lot of people. I don’t know if what we have is special, but I’m very happy about the product that we put out there. We try and work at it and it’s not as easy as some people want to believe. It takes work and effort for all of us. I think everyone comes from the same place: This is the greatest job in the world, let’s have fun with it. If we’re going to be miserable here, we better find something else to do.”

You can read the entire piece by Santoliquito here.