'Bryce did most of the hard work': Franzke talks iconic call

This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Scott Franzke said something spontaneous in the moment, and that spontaneous something has been immortalized in Philadelphia.

“It is bedlam at the Bank!”

Franzke spoke those words after Bryce Harper hit a game-winning home run in the eighth inning in Game 5 of the 2022 NLCS, sending the Phillies to the World Series for the first time since 2009. “Bedlam at the Bank” captured the scene at Citizens Bank Park, where 45,000 fans lost their minds as Harper rounded the bases.

In the hours, days, weeks and months that followed, Harper’s homer and Franzke’s call have been replayed on TV, radio, phones and tablets probably millions of times. It has been slapped on t-shirts. Franzke’s family owns a few.

“It’s humbling because I’m just trying to do my job,” Franzke said the other day at BayCare Ballpark. “I don’t know how to say it. It’s strange. I’ve seen it on shirts. I get asked about it. All this stuff. It’s not something you set out to do. It just happened.”

Franzke paused a moment.

“Bryce did most of the hard work,” he deadpanned.

The Phillies recently trademarked “Bedlam at the Bank” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It joins other Phillies trademarks, including Phillies logos, Phillie Phanatic, Phanavision, “Phlls” and “ill.” Remember “ill?”

The trademarks prevent individuals and companies from taking the Phillies’ intellectual property, using it and profiting from it, including the sale of unlicensed t-shirts and other merchandise.

Phillies vice president of business affairs Howard Smith said the instant he heard Franzke’s call, he got chills up his back. He then turned to the person next to him and said, “That was awesome. That’s one of the best calls I’ve ever heard. We need to trademark that.”

The next day, Smith called a Phillies’ lawyer and requested that they register for one.

“I could see this becoming a big part of the Phillies, so we began the process immediately,” Smith said. “On one hand, we did the right thing from a business perspective. From a fan perspective, we know we did the right thing because obviously people are all over it. So now we have to use it, and we also have to protect ourselves.”

Expect licensed “Bedlam at the Bank” merchandise this season and beyond, while unlicensed gear becomes more difficult to find.

Franzke said his son and twin daughters don’t really understand the fuss about “Bedlam at the Bank.”

It’s just something dad said on the radio, after all.

“What’s the big deal?” they ask.

“I used the worst parenting line ever,” Franzke said, laughing. “I said, ‘You’ll understand when you’re older.’ Because I don’t know what to say.”

Years from now, they will understand. Because “Bedlam at the Bank” will be associated with Harper, Franzke and the Phillies forever.

That must be surreal, right?

“I think there will always be a certain generation of people that connect with that,” Franzke said. “There will be that connection to me. That’s cool. That’s really humbling. In years, time will dull some of the effects of that as new people come up. Eventually there will be a whole bunch of people who’ll be like, ‘What the hell is Bedlam at the Bank?’

“Honestly, I think when it’s all said and done, it will probably be attached more to Harper’s legacy than anything else. I’m not saying he doesn’t have great things in his future, but that’s a moment that will always be connected to Bryce.”