Phillies

Leslie Gudel Leaves CSN

By Kyle Scott

Published: Oct 4th, 2016 · 10:07 AM EDT

---

Somewhat surprising news from Leslie Gudel yesterday:

In an interview with Rob Tornoe, Gudel, who has had a mostly reduced role covering the Phillies in recent years, said it wasn’t her decision to leave after the season:

“We discussed this prior to the season starting, and I’m comfortable with the decision,” Gudel said in an interview.  She said it wasn’t her idea, however.

“I love baseball. I love the Phillies. If I don’t end up back at the ballpark covering the team, I’m really going to miss it,” Gudel said, who also added she had nothing but respect for CSN and the people who work there.

CSN put out a statement:

Interestingly, both Gudel and Neil Hartman – two of the original CSN-ers – have left this year. Hartman had posted a similar message on social media, which was also followed up by a brief statement from CSN:

“We would like to thank Neil Hartman for his many years of service at Comcast SportsNet and wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Typically, two well-liked sportscasters don’t just leave their jobs without somewhere to go. So it certainly seems like there’s maybe a cost-cutting element here, but who knows. Hartman just lists Sportscaster on LinkedIn, and it doesn’t sound like Gudel has any immediate plans to go elsewhere.