The Phillies announced on Thursday that longtime Phillies radio color commentator Larry Andersen will further reduce his work schedule this upcoming season. Andersen will move to a weekend role, calling 40 of the team’s 81 home games alongside Scott Franzke.
Michael Bourn, Chad Durbin, Erik Kratz and Kevin Stocker will fill in for Andersen on weekday home games. The four broadcasters were initially added to the team to work Phillies road games following Kevin Frandsen’s departure from the radio booth.
Phillies executive vice president Dave Buck said Andersen is reducing his schedule so he can “have more personal time to enjoy life outside of baseball.”
“The Phillies have been very understanding and accommodating in my desire for a scaled-back schedule. This was not an easy decision for me, but I believe my new schedule is a nice middle ground that is a win-win for me, the Phillies and the fans,” Andersen said in a team press release. “For the past 15 years, Scott Franzke and I have developed an incredible relationship. We kid each other a lot, but he is one of the main reasons why this decision was so difficult and why I don’t want to completely walk away at this point.”
Andersen pitched for the Phillies from 1983 to 1986 and returned for the final two years of his career in 1993. He joined the Phillies’ radio and television broadcast team in 1998 following Richie Ashburn’s passing. Andersen moved away from the TV side and switched over to radio exclusively in 2007, where he has been calling games with Franzke for 15 years.
