Televised Phillies games likely to get underway this weekend

Phillies baseball is set to soon return to the airwaves

Philadelphia Phillies baseball is set to return to the television screen after a near four-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 crisis.

As the team gears up for its 60-game sprint in less than two weeks, manager Joe Girardi‘s squad will first play three exhibition games, all set to start at 6:05 p.m. — July 18 at the Washington Nationals, July 19 home against the Baltimore Orioles, and July 20 at the New York Yankees.

Update, 7/15: NBC Sports Philadelphia announced it will air the 7/19 and 7/20 exhibition games.

We now know that at least one of the games will likely be televised by the Phillies and NBC Sports Philadelphia, the team’s lone home exhibition contest on Sunday, according to play-by-play broadcaster Tom McCarthy. It is not yet known if any of the three Phillies exhibition games will air on SportsRadio 94 WIP.

Expected Opening Day starters Max Scherzer (Nationals) and John Means (Orioles) will get the starting nods opposite Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins, and company in the games.

As per 2020 season protocol, television broadcasters are not permitted to travel with the team. Therefore, all home teams have to provide the feed to the opposite team’s broadcast crew, who would add their commentary. Therefore, Phillies television broadcasters will work all 60 games (minus the few national broadcasts) from the booth at Citizens Bank Park.

Senior producer of Phillies baseball telecasts, Jeff Halikman, recently went over the new process NBC Sports Philadelphia will have to follow in 2020, along with the possibility of a creative way to engage fans.

RELATED | Phillies TV, radio broadcasters weigh in on the universal DH

YES will televise the July 20 matchup; if NBC Sports Philadelphia wants to air the Phillies’ exhibition finale, they would have to work with that station’s feed and camera shots. It is not yet known if the Nationals’ television affiliate will produce the July 18 exhibition opener.

Members of the Phillies television broadcast team include:

• Tom McCarthy, entering his 20th season in the big leagues (13th of his second stint in Philadelphia)
• John Kruk, entering his fifth season (2003, 2017-20), on Phillies game broadcasts
• Ben Davis, entering his sixth season in the booth after four years as an in-studio baseball analyst for NBC Sports Philadelphia
• Gregg Murphy, entering his ninth season on the broadcast team
• Mike Schmidt and Jimmy Rollins: the franchise greats have appeared in recent seasons for select games, Schmidt since 2014 and Rollins since 2019.

It is great to hear we will soon be able to see live Phillies baseball action. We have followed videos on our Twitter feeds from those on the beat, but it’s not the same as kicking back in a summer weekend and watching baseball on the television screen.