I know I’m going to get killed for this post, but I’m going to write it anyway, so here goes nothing…

My colleague Kevin Kinkead wrote an article about 94.1 WIP’s Angelo Cataldi’s reaction to the Gabe Kapler firing today, calling it “cringe worthy” and took some pot shots at the morning talker for his frequent self-plaudit that he represents the voice of the Philadelphia sports fan.

This, of course, becomes a generational argument.

Cataldi, who has been on the air longer than a lot of Philadelphia sports fans have been alive, is in his late sixties.

The preponderance of loud sports voices today are at least half his age, if not more.

So, as the ever-growing trope goes, Cataldi must only represent the voice of fans in their 60s and doesn’t accurately reflect the voice of the younger fans in town.

That’s because there’s also a stereotype for the younger fan. That somehow, everyone under the age of 35 are Millennial lemmings who all think the same way and that inherently, every one of those fans thinks differently than us old heads.

Meanwhile we think the younger fans are idiots, while they think we’re clueless curmudgeons.

It’s kind of a vicious cycle.

But I’m not writing this to fuel a generation war. This isn’t the point of my post. And besides, that generation war already exists.

Instead, my point is to tell you that yes, Angelo Cataldi is right.

His take, that Gabe Kapler needed to be fired as manager of the Phillies, and the resulting exultation of celebration that he showed on Ava Graham’s Twitter, while a bit corny, is exactly what was happening with Phillies fans all over the city on Thursday.

Just on my cell phone alone were text messages from 14 different individuals – some friends, some family – expressing relief that their two-year sentence in baseball purgatory was finally over.

These texts came from people who ranged in age from 17 to 66. The median age was 38.

And every one of them wanted Kapler fired.

That’s not to say they were completely happy with this decision by the Phillies. No. Some of them wanted there to be more bloodshed. Some of them wanted Matt Klentak axed from the GM chair and President Andy McPhail shot into the sun (“If we hit the sun, we do, if we don’t, we don’t,” texted one of my snarky offspring).

But it wasn’t just my inner circle of Phillies fans who were relieved to finally see Kapler go:

https://twitter.com/JasonF17745/status/1182361258814791680

https://twitter.com/MSMyers31/status/1182361174567874561

https://twitter.com/robpolak20/status/1182355885919789056

And there are HUNDREDS of other tweets, just like these. I just pulled a random sample.

To be fair, there were a good amount of Kapler support tweets too, but the rejoicing far outweighed the cries of “scapegoat.”

Which leads me to my point (finally).

Have you ever seen a team in professional sports fire a coach or manager with a losing record and talk about how wonderful he is on the way out the door?

Well, the Phillies did that today:

So, what does this tell me? This tells me that the Phillies actually really like Gabe Kapler as a manager but realize that they were in an untenable situation and could not bring him back because it would be bad for business.

This is their way of saying, “Gabe, we’re really sorry, but the public perception was greater than the reality.”

Baseball is a business, and the Phillies knew by June that business was bad in 2019. After the Bryce Harper hype wore off and the Phillies started floundering, they knew the city was not taking to this team.

The Phillies were unlikable. They were unwatchable some nights. Attendance, although up for the year because of the Harper effect, was dwindling when it came to actual butts in seats. The percentage of tickets being used was less and less and less.

The Phillies, like any other professional sports teams, do their own market research. They know how the general public feels about their team. They knew they couldn’t bring Kapler back. There’s no way this city’s fan base would have accepted the status quo next season after Opening Day.

The anger and apathy would have grown ever more. The manager would be scrutinized even more. The Ricky Botallicos and Alex Rodriguezes of the world would have gotten even louder in their criticisms.

Even the team’s broadcasters turned on the manager as the season wore on, questioning decisions, and wondering out loud what the heck was going on in that Clubhouse.

It was a fervor. If you paid close enough attention, you would see it. Hear it. Feel it.

It was a pulse in this city, no matter what the more “progressive thinkers” in town might say.

But to thank a losing manager for his “steadfast effort, energy and enthusiasm” and saying the team is “unquestionably a better team… because of his contributions,” and that his efforts have “established a strong and sustainable foundation for this organization moving forward,” – that’s going a little too far, isn’t it? He had a losing record!

Usually it’s, “Thanks for your time, but we needed a new voice.” Or, “We felt we needed to go in a new direction.”

There was none of that. None.

That means that from a baseball perspective, the Phillies didn’t want to make this move. But from a business perspective – and by business we mean putting butts in seats in 2020 and beyond, the Phillies had no choice but to make this move, right or wrong.

And that’s because the City wanted the change. Plain and simple.

Circling back to Cataldi, that’s all he was saying. He knows what the city wants and he expresses that opinion on his radio show.

Yeah, he can get a little shticky at times. Yes, he can become a caricature of himself. But make no mistake, Angelo Cataldi is a smart, smart man. He doesn’t have the success that he has if he weren’t. He knows exactly what he is doing, exactly what he is saying, and the impact it will have.

So, when he tells you that he represents the voice of the fan, he’s not wrong, whether you want to believe him or not is another story.

Oh, and for Cataldi’s part, he does agree with most everyone else:

https://twitter.com/AngeloCataldi/status/1182327644303568897?s=20

Will his next crusade to replace the GM and have the owner pull his head out of his ass be considered “cringe worthy” as well?

Maybe by some, but the fact is, Cataldi is a watchdog and Philadelphia sports needs at least one. No one else in this town is willing to go as far as he goes to get answers and to express the voice of the fan to the teams and their coaches, managers and executives.

There’s a reason the Phillies manager and the Eagles coach have weekly contractual obligations to go on his show, and no one else’s. That’s agreed upon by WIP as a rights holder, but also by the participating teams, who want their coaches having that exposure on Cataldi’s show.

You don’t have to always agree with Angelo – that’s part of the beauty of sports talk radio – but you cannot deny that his impact as an influencer in Philadelphia is as great as it is for a reason.

And that’s because his voice is representative of a majority of fans in this market, whether you like it or not.