Phillies: Tom McCarthy discusses Marlins, season lull, sons

Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy discusses current events related to the team and Major League Baseball

Who knows just when the Philadelphia Phillies will play again —or, for that matter, if Major League Baseball will be able to finish the shortened season that it started in late July.

Phillies television play-by-play voice Tom McCarthy recently joined Sportsnet’s Dan Shulman on his “A Swing And A Belt” podcast to discuss current events surrounding Major League Baseball and the team, who has not played since last Sunday following a COVID-19 outbreak among their Miami Marlins opening series opponent.

McCarthy agreed with Shulman that “melancholy” is a good adjective to describe the current state of the Phillies.

“I think we all felt that way. We’ve had this text chain going with us Phillies broadcasters and it’s been quite humorous, but in a lot of ways,” McCarthy said, “it’s been quite sad … just because of the inability to kind of get things rolling.”

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The broadcast veteran said that prior to the shutdown, the three-week summer camp was good, and that the first two games of the season seemed to also be “moving well.”

“I was at the ballpark a bunch of times and everything was coordinated exceptionally well. But, I think it shows just how contagious this virus is and has been for a lot of us, even if we don’t have first-hand knowledge of it,” McCarthy added. “I think we kind of do now, even from a little distance, to see how fast it went through the Marlins clubhouse.”

“We joked about it a little bit, but we also from a serious standpoint, scratched our heads wondering when will we get a chance to get back at it again and hopefully do it in a healthy way.”