Margaret latest McCarthy to star at Thunder game

TRENTON >> The first thing Margaret McCarthy wanted to do when she heard she was being invited into the press box at Arm & Hammer Park was find the Tom McCarthy Radio Booth.

After all, she’s never seen the plaque dedicated to her father.

“I got excited because even when he was honored he and the name got put on it, I didn’t get to come see it,” Margaret said. “You could see the first thing I did when I came in here was take a picture.”

McCarthy was actually here to sing the national anthem prior to Tuesday night’s Thunder game against New Hampshire. She landed the gig after her church wasn’t able to make it and she told her father Tom, who is now the lead play by play voice of the Phillies, the she would love to step in and go solo.

“I’ve never done this by myself,” said McCarthy, who is a sophomore at TCNJ and graduated from Allentown High. “I’ve been a church singer. I was a music major for a semester at college. You would sing during voice lessons and voice class where you would have to go up in front of your entire class and sing your solo every week, but that’s like 10 people.”

Margaret is the third of four McCarthy children and the most musical.

“I always sang around my house and my brothers and cousins would tell me to shut up all the time because I would sing everything,” she said. “You mention a word and a song lyric comes to my mind and I just belt.

“I’ve never been like that where I put it out there. I’ve always kept it to myself in my house. I was pretty prominent in church. I was the cantor every week. I had a — I would like to say a following.”

McCarthy delivered the anthem sporting a green throwback jersey from the team’s early days in Trenton.

Of course her dad had a hand in that.

“On Monday, I went out and got ice cream with my friends and I was practicing in my car for a while because I’m very loud. I came into my room and saw the shirt hanging up and I thought, ‘he’s just the cutest man in the whole world,’” McCarthy said. “He texted me this morning and was like, ‘you don’t have to wear it, but ... if you want to, it’s there for you. I was like ‘you’re adorable.’ Phillies game next? “Maybe,” she said. “Who knows? Maybe just so I can see the bell being rung.”