Play ball! Sure, the Phillies have participated in almost 30 games since February, but Thursday is when baseball in 2025 begins to count. Thursday starts our home team’s fourth consecutive annual campaign to bring a possible World Series championship to its loud and loyal fans, even if the first o f those campaigns, the one that led to a World Series appearance, had the markings of myth becoming reality. The Phillies start their regular season on the road in Washington with a 4:05 p.m. game against the Washington Nationals. It airs on Channel 10, which is owned by the same company that holds the contract to televise most Phillies games, Comcast via NBC Sports Philadelphia. The television announcers will be Tom McCarthy, now in his 18th season doing Phils play-by-play, John Kruk, Ben Davis, Rubén Amaro Jr. Retired former Phillies’ starting pitcher Cole Hamels will be part of the broadcast team this season. (AP Photo/Matt Marton) And, new this year, Cole Hamels taking turns doing color analysis, with Kruk as McCarthy’s main sidekick. Mike Schmidt will be joining them for Sunday home games, and Taryn Hatcher providing sideline reports. Hamels will be eased into the broadcast roster, making as little as one appearance a month in his first year after retirement as a player and first year being a special assistant to the Phillies front office. All of the color analysts but Davis played once upon a time for the Phillies, and Ben’s a former Major Leaguer — Padres, Mariners, etc. — who grew up in Delaware County and resides in Chester County. Amaro was once general manager of the club. Practically all Phillies games are heard on WIP (94.1 FM) with one of the best ever in the business, Scott Franzke, handling play-by-play, Larry Andersen tag-teaming with Kevin Stocker as color analyst, and Gregg Murphy doing pre- and post-game shows while being radio’s sideline reporter. If Franzke’s away, usually to sub for McCarthy doing TV play-by-play, Murphy takes his place. Anderson does not travel, so he is heard at home games while Stocker takes to the road. In general, these TV and radio broadcast teams are among the liveliest and funniest in their line of work. I’ve traveled a lot. I know. I watch or listen to games in some cities and miss the cool, sardonic flavor of Franzke-Andersen repartee or the inevitable LOL comment Kruk is bound to spout per broadcast. Mets radio announcers were so bad, they turned me into a Yankees listener, the bygone John Sterling and current Suzyn Waldman being hoots compared with their expressionless duds. Phillies games broadcast in Spanish are heard on WTTM (1680 AM) with Oscar Budejen on play-by-play and Bill Kulik as color commentator. The Phillies home opener is Monday, March 31 vs. the Colorado Rockies. It will air at 3:05 p.m., also on Channel 10, WIP, and WTTM. Many fans will be looking for another Red October. Some, according to what I hear on sports radio, say anything but a 2025 World Series appearance should be considered a failure. I disagree. I’m a lifelong Phillies fan with a birthday on this year’s opening day, so of course, I was disappointed by the ending of the last two seasons and playoff losses to the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Mets. I would like the Phillies to represent the National League in the World Series every year they play. But I don’t live with hard feelings, seethe with anger, or mope in sadness if they don’t. Not for more than a solitary minute. How about being realistic? Only one of 30 teams can be baseball’s World Champion. The Phillies have achieved that goal twice in more than 140 years as a professional franchise. A handful of teams — Dodgers,Yankees, Cardinals — can claim more, but so what? Baseball is entertainment as much as it competition. The Phillies of this decade with their boys-on-the-sandlot, let’s-have-a-good-time style of play, especially since Rob Thomsonbecame manager in 2022, are one of the most successful and most entertaining squads in baseball and in all of sports, as are their football counterparts, the Philadelphia Eagles! What’s more, the Phillies have one of baseball’s most likable, make that lovable, group of players, each one worth enjoying and rooting for. Just about every game for the past two-and-a-half years has been well-contended and excitingly played. Some were causes for jubilation. And, again, you don’t find the nitwits, grouches, and eccentrics you see on other benches. So, on to Red October and participation in the 2025 World Series! In case that doesn’t happen, on to being among the best representatives of Philadelphia anywhere as a fun-to-watch, amiable, and oh so capable a baseball team!!! ‘Juliet’ actress a natural at song Before knowing else anything about Kathryn Allison, I knew she had to have to big voice because of actors who preceded her as Angelique in productions of “Juliet,” the touring production of which comes to Philadelphia’s Academy of Music for two weeks starting Tuesday. One of those actors is Keala Settle, who took over the role of Juliet’s nurse, in London’s West End. Before I interviewed Allison, I figured I’d find out about her voice by watching a videos I found on YouTube. I ended up watching several of the videos. The size of Allison’s voice, which has a wide range, was only a fraction of what drove me to song after song. It was the quality of her voice that struck me, so clean, clear, and direct with little ornamentation or embellishment. The artful simplicity reminded me of Ella Fitzgerald. Like Ella, Allison gives her songs and compositions style and texture but always with a pure tone and natural sound that serves music, lyric, and intention beautifully. Not only did I become eager to see Allison in “Juliet,” but I wanted to look out for a cabaret or concert appearance. Such things as those will have to wait a while. For the past year and a half, Allison has been touring the United States, first in a tour on “Company” that came through Philadelphia last season and now in “Juliet.” Kathryn Allison attends the 2022 Only Make Believe Gala at St. James Theatre on Nov. 14, 2022 in New York City. (Rob Kim/Getty Images) The videos I enjoyed came about because Allison wanted to fill her time, and a career dream or two, during the pandemic that closed theaters at the start of this decade. When Allison and I spoke by telephone, she being in Cleveland, I started by asking how she developed her pristine way of singing. “I grew up with music all around me, “ Allison said. “My parents had a wide range of taste, and there were always records playing in house. I heard everything from The Temptations to Nina Simone and Sonia Cruz. “I’d sing along with those artists and found some favorites of my own like Ethel Merman, Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald. Singing was part of my life, part of my being.” A teacher at Allison’s middle school in Maplewood, N.J. noticed her vocal talent. “She kept sending letters home to my mother saying she would like me to try out for the choir, which she led. “One day, she just called and asked my mother why she hadn’t responded. Once my mother heard what the teacher wanted, she said, ‘OK,’ and I found my future. “My childhood best friend pushed me further to wanting to perform. Her family loved musicals and went to New York all the time to see them. “They had all the albums of current Broadway hits, classics too. My friend made me a mixed tape of songs from shows like ‘Les Miz,’ ‘Little Shop of Horrors,’ ‘Aida,’ and ‘Little Women,” and I played in over and over again. I became enamored of Broadway music. “Plus I learned, or realized, that people made careers out of doing these shows. Once I knew that, I never had to choose what I wanted to do for a living, I knew.” “Juliet” looks at Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and asks what if Juliet decided not to kill herself when she finds Romeo poisoned to death beside her. What if she decides to live and have new adventures? The musical, which has one original song but is chocked with jukebox favorites, including The Back Street Boys, Nsync, Brittney Spears, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry and others, shows what Juliet did after breaking out of the Capulet tomb and claiming her life. “I play Angelique, Juliet’s nurse,” Allison says. “In Shakespeare, you see the nurse as devoted but broad and bawdy as well. She serves a purpose to the plot and provides comic relief. She’s pretty one-dimensional. “Juliet builds on all of those traits and gives her a name, Angelique, and love interests. It’s a new perspective that expands the role. Angelique inhabits a larger scope and joins Juliet as she experiences a larger, world, especially after they run away to Paris to escape Juliet’s father’s threat to place her in a convent.” Allison has been criss-crossing the country for more than a year, but she says it’s always special when she comes to Philadelphia. “My mother was born in Philly. She was one of eight children who spent their childhood in a small house in Fishtown. When the family grew too large to fit the house, they moved to Deptford. That took them to New Jersey. I grew up in the northern end of the state. “We visited Philly a lot. When I play there, the audience is full of my aunts, uncles and cousins.” Allison’s love of singing, followed by being in a choir and plays, made her serious about her career. She said she became fanatical about taking classes in dance and acting as well as in voice. She got noticed too. She began winning talent awards. The title role in her high school production of “Hello, Dolly!” earned her belated recognition from her hometown theater, the Paper Mill Playhouse. “I applied for a scholarship there and didn’t get it. Then, someone from Paper Mill in ‘Dolly,’ and I were given scholarships to their conservatory training program and to their summer session. “Besides learning a lot, I made friends in theater who last to this day.” Friends prove to be important to Allison, especially Tony winner James Monroe Iglehart, with whom she worked in “Aladdin,” and got her “thinking about doing a show of her own,” and Bill Sherman, the arranger of “Juliet’s” score. They guided her and led her to putting together music she’d written and doing some cabaret shows. The pandemic helped fulfill Allison’s ambitions. She used the time to put together songs for an album while buying equipment and making those YouTube videos. In Cleveland when we spoke, in Philadelphia today, Allison said she loves being in “Juliet” because it expresses what many people experience and feel in life and as regards love. “Juliet” runs through Sunday, April 6 at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music. It’s part of Ensemble Arts Philly’s Broadway series. Ticket and other information can be found at www.ensembleartsphilly,org. Capathia Jenkins appearance Capathia Jenkins, a powerhouse singer who has appeared on “The Sopranos” and “Law & Order,” in guest roles, will be the focal performer in “She’s Got Soul,” with the No Name Pops, who perform in concert at 3 p.m. on March 30 in Philadelphia’s Marian Anderson Hall. Temple alumnus Lucas Walden conducts. Actress Capathia Jenkins in 2014 attends The New York Pops 31st Birthday Gala at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City. (Brad Barket/Getty Images) Jenkins will sing songs made famous some of the queens of Soul music such as Gladys Knight, Whitney Houston and Chaka Khan. She recently made a splash in her show, “Aretha: A Tribute.”   ...read more read less