McCarthy, partners managing to stay busy during shutdown
Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy was doing preparation work at his spring training apartment in Florida on March 12, virtually the last time that everything seemed normal, in sports or otherwise.
He was scheduled to call one more Phillies game the next day, fly to Brooklyn to cover the Atlantic 10 men’s basketball tournament Saturday, and then immediately return to Clearwater for more baseball.
But as McCarthy turned on the start of Atlantic 10 and Big Ten games, breaking news poured out that conference tournaments were being canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak. Soon after that, baseball also went on hold indefinitely, and for the past nine weeks, McCarthy has had to find new ways to keep his passion burning.
“I don’t think any of us could’ve envisioned this, but as we were told at the time and even as time moves on, the virus has superceded everything,” McCarthy said. “It obviously has dictated everybody’s schedule.”
Initially, McCarthy said, the consensus was that baseball would resume at some point in April or early May. He remained in Clearwater for about a week because his son, Tommy, was playing on the East Coast for his independent league team’s spring training. Naturally, that didn’t last long either.
McCarthy, 51, has been at home in Allentown, N.J. with his wife and four children ever since, working out of his basement and taking up projects around the house. For example, they built Tommy his own batting cage and Kerri, a junior at Allentown High, her own field hockey cage.
As far as his job, McCarthy has been hosting “10 Minutes with T-Mac” interviews on the Phillies’ YouTube channel and calling virtual Phillies games on “MLB The Show” with his broadcast partners John Kruk and Aston native Ben Davis. They’ve been recording those games every Tuesday on Zoom and airing them Saturday on NBC Sports Philadelphia. They also hold radio roundtables on Thursdays.
“I think I’ve learned every avenue of how the computer program Zoom works where I’m doing these interviews. I’m not sure if that’s going to help or hurt me in the future,” McCarthy said. “I think it’s taught me, like a lot of us, to live in the moment and to take care of what we can take care of. I can’t project too far ahead. My job is to do what I can from a Phillies standpoint, but also to take care of my family. The Phillies have been unbelievable through this, CBS was unbelievable through it. So I’ve been fortunate from that standpoint.”
Preparation figures to be easier once McCarthy is back on television, since he and radio analyst Kevin Frandsen have had more time to craft new scoresheets that are computerdriven so that they aren’t writing everything by hand. That project has been in the works for years now.
McCarthy finds that the simulated games are less about helping himself stay sharp on the air and really more about hopefully providing fans with a sense of normalcy again from hearing their voices.
That will also be the goal if Major League Baseball ends up piecing together a shortened season. Since stadiums are unlikely to host fans this year, television broadcasts would take on even greater weight.
“It’s funny, I don’t know if it’s tough to stay fresh, because I feel like I can pick up and just go,” McCarthy said. “We may be broadcasting from a studio or from my office when the season begins. We have no idea what the plan is just yet, so we’re kind of getting used to that. It makes me appreciate my partners and how much I miss them and seeing them.”
McCarthy is still holding out hope for Minor League Baseball since Tommy is a player and his older son, Patrick, is a broadcaster for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate. But unlike the majors, the minors can’t operate without ticket revenue.
MLB and the Players Association are in ongoing labor talks to resume play potentially in early July.
“I think that if it can work safely and in a healthy way, then I think both sides will come to an agreement with it,” McCarthy said. “There’s obviously a lot that’s on the table that needs to be discussed, but they’ve given themselves some time before what they propose the date will be to start games. So I think that as long as it’s safe, as long as everybody’s healthy, I think that they’ll figure something out that’ll be good for everyone, and most importantly the fans.”
In addition to negotiating salaries, MLB reportedly sent players a 67-page health and safety proposal last weekend. Among other potential changes, showering at ballparks would be discouraged, high-fives would be prohibited and mascots like the Phillie Phanatic would no longer be on the field.
“I don’t think it’s something that will be for the deep future. I think it’ll just be for the foreseeable future,” McCarthy said. “I think we get used to anything and we’ll get used to this, even if it’s for a short period of time. And when I say short period of time, it may just be this year. So I think that if we can do this safely and effectively, it may be good for folks to just have something to look forward to at 7 o’clock or 1 o’clock in the afternoon. Not only in Philadelphia, but also in New York, Boston — all the cities around the country that love baseball so much.”
It certainly has been a bizarre and unforeseen time for the Phillies’ playby-play announcer, who essentially had been on the move ever since beginning his broadcasting career with the Trenton Thunder in 1994.
But like many people, he’s gained even more perspective before life returns to normal.
“I’m envious of the first responders, these friends that I have that were in college that have become nurses and doctors and just the work that they’ve done, and even the teachers and what they’ve been able to accomplish,” McCarthy said. “I think that’s where there’s good in all of this is that if you did take anybody for granted in any walk of life that’s continuing to operate, I would hope that people don’t take anybody for granted anymore.”