Angelo Cataldi is a radio blow hard, but we miss his interactions with Gabe Kapler. They were a total train wreck and made for mandatory listening because you never knew what ridiculously stupid thing was going to be said next.

As the former Phillies manager returns to town for the first time tonight, we’re digging up some of his best (read: dumbest) interactions on the 94 WIP morning show.

1. Speaking for the fans

After Andrew McCutchen tore his ACL in the scandalous Jean Segura “hustle” situation, Kapler went on Cataldi’s show and was chastised because of his refusal to go hard on Segura with criticism, or even bench him.

That resulted in Angelo doing his “I speak for the fans” routine again, citing a WIP Twitter poll to make his point:

Kapler: “Angelo, you don’t speak for the whole city.”

Cataldi: “I talk to a hell of a lot more fans than you do.”

Kapler: “You talk to the guys that call in, the men and women that call in.”

Cataldi: “And the ones that email me and the ones that are on Twitter, and all of the other people. Are you trying to tell me you are more plugged into this city than I am? You’ve been on the west coast for a week, Gabe.”

Kapler: “I’ll tell you this, what you are plugged into are the people that call in to your show. Not all of the fans in Philadelphia like you represent.”

Cataldi: “We actually polled this question and 85-percent of the people said that Segura should be held accountable far more than you did. So that’s over five, six thousand people. That’s not enough either for you Gabe? How many do you need before you realize that you’re actually not in tandem with what’s going on in your city.”

Kapler: “Your sample, the sample that you are drawing from, is a very specific sample.”

Great stuff there. Let’s use a poll, created by WIP, and cite the data as if it’s even remotely scientific.

2. Asking about a non-issue

In August of 2019, the Phillies announced that they would bring back World Series-winning manager Charlie Manuel to replace fired hitting coach John Mallee. That resulted in fans going through social media and finding a 2013 tweet in which Kapler called for Manuel’s firing.

At the time, Kapler was working as an analyst for FOX, and it was understood, obviously, that part of the job is to share opinions on the performance of a player or manager, as a former big leaguer who can speak with credibility.

That resulted in Howard “The King” Eskin asking about the six-year-old tweet, in a stumbling and bumbling kind of way that made no sense whatsoever. Cataldi, to his credit, formed the question in a much-more understandable way, and it gave us this exchange:

Cataldi: Gabe, the next thing, Howard Eskin screwed all this up yesterday, confused everybody. Here’s what people are talking about, and you can probably really help us clarify this. When you were working for FOX, this was July 26th, 2013, you tweeted out, “Time for Phillies to do the right thing for the future of the organization and pull the trigger. Sad for fans, sadder for team, but time.” And then two weeks later, Charlie was fired. Was this you endorsing a removal of Charlie as the manager?

Kapler: I actually didn’t remember that all when Howard brought it up. But I’m impressed you went through than six years of my tweets to find that. Charlie knows how excited I am to have him with us. I didn’t see him getting too worked up over one off tweet from 2013, particularly since I’m sure you called for his dismissal plenty of times as well.

Just like the coconut oil thing, this wasn’t a topic and Kapler didn’t need to be asked about it.

3. Anger for the sake of anger

In October of 2018, Cataldi wrote a column at PhillyVoice titled “Phillies GM Matt Klentak is Incompetent.” In hindsight, he was probably right.

At the time, Kapler wasn’t a fan of the story, calling it disrespectful and inaccurate. He admitted that his team’s performance “sucked” down the stretch while stressing that the club did improve 14 games over the prior season.

That led to this quote on the WIP morning show:

“I take issue with what you said. I am a compassionate and competitive man, but generating anger for the sake of anger means that you just end up flat out wrong like you were in that piece. That isn’t what the Phillies need. You’ve been angry about the team year in and year out, yes, a team that got worse every year since 2011. You were angry about it. Now it’s getting better but you’re still doing the same thing Angelo. You talk about the definition of insanity? I’d take a minute to look in the mirror about that.”

Got ’em!

Kapler only spent two seasons here but it didn’t take him long to understand Angelo’s entire shtick, which was, as he puts it, “generating anger for the sake of anger.”

4. Not watching the games

We wouldn’t expect Angelo Cataldi, who wakes up in the wee hours of the morning, to stay up to watch extra-innings west coast baseball on a week night.

Regardless, this was a good exchange about a 15-inning triumph out in California:

5. Not worried about online polls

Cataldi called for Kapler’s firing in June of 2019, shortly before GM Matt Klentak backed his manager in the midst of a seven-game losing streak.

That resulted in Angelo claiming he was “depressed” before again asking about the hustle issue, to which Kapler provided a lengthy reply:

Gabe: Alright, I’m really glad we’re talking about this issue. Let me start with this; it would be easy to bench players and I know that it would make a significant segment of the fan base happy. And I would not have to face questions about it every day and you know what? – in the end maybe my job would be safer. It would be easy, but it wouldn’t be right. I see our fans as an important part of what we do every day, but I can’t and I won’t manage based on online polls. I’m gonna make decisions that I believe are in the best interest of our team based on what’s happening inside that clubhouse. What I’m seeing from fans, the question you’re asking, it seems to assume that there’s a lack of care coming from Jean, coming from Cesar, like they’re not trying hard enough. I understand why it might look like that from the stands, watching on TV, whatever. If that were the case, then maybe some sort of punishment would make sense, like pulling them out of the lineup, not playing. But that’s just not the case. Jean didn’t run as hard as he could because he let his frustration come out for a moment, and we’ve all had those moments. I had mine kicking dirt after a temper tantrum last week. Cesar saw a ball that was foul, that was fair, and then was overly cautious and didn’t want to take the bat out of Bryce’s hands.

These aren’t the best decisions, but they’re not the product of people who don’t care, and punishment might make some people feel better for a moment, like they’ve gotten some sort of vicarious, emotional release, whatever. But punishment doesn’t teach emotional control during our most challenging times. And punishment doesn’t ensure that we’re gonna see foul or fair better with more accuracy. It’s a minute of emotional release for fans, and sometimes for decision makers, but not for the clubhouse who continues to see the effort that Cesar has brought for years and who see hustle from Jean, and I don’t want to let those clubhouse guys down. The guys that we have in that room are professionals. They don’t need a big public spectacle to understand the pressure and the urgency and they don’t need a stunt like removing somebody from a lineup, to get.. to understand that Philadelphia loves players who throw their bodies around and seriously hustle. They sacrifice their bodies in the process. And I see every one of our players working their asses to be the best we can be every single day. So failure happens in this game, but I trust the group in that room and I’m gonna have their backs every single day because they deserve that.”

Never a dull moment back then.