John Kruk

John Kruk is no fan of the boring corporate lifestyle and is hoping a return to Philadelphia will present him with a more laid-back approach to covering the sport of baseball. The former ESPN baseball analyst was officially introduced as the newest member of the Phillies television broadcast team on CSN Philly on Tuesday, and he let it be known he was not a fan of the way ESPN ran things.

It wasn’t so much that Kruk didn’t like working for ESPN as much as it was getting in the way of his golf game.

“If I say this I’m going to get in trouble, but I’ll say it anyway,” Kruk said. “Me? I’m not big on meetings. We had a lot of them up there [at ESPN]. A whole bunch. Incessant phone calls. I didn’t answer most. Pretty rude when somebody’s hitting to answer your phone when you’re playing golf.”

Yes, how dare ESPN try calling you when you or one of your golf buddies is in the middle of his backswing. At least Kruk knows the proper etiquette when on the back nine, right?

Kruk is returning to his broadcasting roots with the Phillies. Before being picked up by ESPN, Kruk broke into the booth alongside legendary Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas. He will now spend part of the 2017 regular season in the booth alongside Phillies play-by-play announcer Tom McCarthy and share and split time in the booth with analyst Ben Davis, with Gregg Murphy returning to provide information from the field and concourse of the stadium during the games.

For Kruk, it should be a bit less demanding on his role for the Phillies broadcasts compared to the everyday suit-and-tie life he had with ESPN. That’s just not Kruk’s style.

“The phone calls weren’t that bad,” he later says. “It was having to listen to them that was painful.”

[The 700 Level]

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.