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.”

Tom McCarthy recalls events before, during, and after last Sunday’s controversial Phillies-Marlins game

Many people around Major League Baseball, including fans, have said that the Marlins should never have played on Sunday.

A recent MLB internal investigation found that the Marlins were “very lapse in following protocols” during their trip to Atlanta to take on the Braves prior to the July 24 season opener at Citizens Bank Park, according to Turner Sports’ Scott Miller. Findings revealed that Marlins players went out (including to bars) instead of following social distancing protocols; Miller adds that “a lot of MLB people [are] very unhappy with Miami.”

The Marlins reportedly even knew at least three of their players had tested positive or were experiencing symptoms, but following a group text, still opted to play against the Phillies in the series finale. Among those included scratched starting pitcher Jose Urena and former Phillies catcher Jorge Alfaro, who traveled on a plane to Philadelphia, but never took the field that series due to protocol. He found out on Opening Day that he had tested positive, was placed on the injured list, and began quarantining.

According to McCarthy, about two hours before Sunday’s game, broadcasters and media were invited to listen in to Don Mattingly‘s press conference.

“We waited and waited and waited, and we wondered, ‘Did we miss it?’” McCarthy recalled. “In reality, we didn’t; 40 minutes after it was scheduled to start, the PR representative for the Marlins — who did a really good job the whole weekend — came on and said, ‘No press conference today; Don Mattingly will address the media after the game.’”

McCarthy added that by that point, he had heard rumors a few other Marlins in the traveling party had tested positive. “I actually called my wife and said, ‘I don’t think we’re going to play today,’ only because of the knowledge that Jorge Alfaro had already tested positive — unbeknownst to him —  and had flown on the plane from Atlanta to Philadelphia,” McCarthy said.

“So, I just assumed that we wouldn’t play Sunday, only because you want to make sure that you tamp this down as we’ve come to find out,” McCarthy continued. “We wound up playing and losing. After the game is when Don discussed affirmatively that the starting pitcher who had been scratched had apparently tested positive and several other players.”

While last Sunday’s game was played, the Yankees and Major League Baseball caught wind of the situation and postponed the four-game home-and-home series between the two teams. The Phillies’ interleague set against the Toronto Blue Jays this weekend has also been shelved.

McCarthy said he was not sure what the aftermath of the Marlins situation on Sunday meant for the Phillies moving forward for those since-postponed games.

“I think, like a lot of us, we woke up the next day still thinking we were going to play the Yankees, but then realized as things were mushrooming, there was a pretty good chance that we weren’t going to play that day,” he noted.

Are the Phillies just as ‘guilty’?

Rumors have suggested that the Marlins made the Phillies aware of their situation last Sunday and asked if they would still like to play.

McCarthy told Shulman that he does not know if that is true, as far as the Phillies “signing off” on playing, but he does know that manager Joe Girardi said the following morning that, in reality, the two teams probably should not have played.

“I don’t know if that’s true,” McCarthy said. “My feeling through the whole thing — it could have been this way and we just don’t know — that it probably should have been somebody else other than the Marlins and Phillies that decide whether the game should’ve been played or not.”

“I think that’s where the issues are concerning,” McCarthy continued. “I think that if somebody else could’ve come up with the decision in Major League Baseball’s sense, it probably would have been a better way to go at it.”

Are the Phillies angry at the Marlins?

McCarthy said he has not talked to anyone about ill-will directed toward the Marlins, specifically, but that he has texted with a couple of players about the frustration they’re going through.

“They are frustrated about it — but, nothing’s been sort of posed toward the Marlins,” he said. “I think that all of us have a pretty good idea of how contagious this virus was and still is. The Phillies totally understood it because they had an issue in Clearwater about four weeks ago and they saw how careful they needed to be around this.”

McCarthy did acknowledge, however, that he thinks all of baseball and sports will probably feel ill-will toward the Marlins upon further confirmation of their actions in Atlanta.

How disruptive, playing-wise, will the shutdown be for the Phillies?

Even if the Phillies remain COVID-free, the reality is, they have not played a game since last Sunday. And while players begin to work out again at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday, it is just their second “gathering” as a team since the controversial series finale.

McCarthy calls this pause in play “disruptive,” particularly for Jake Arrieta and Zach Eflin — the two pitchers in the Phillies starting rotation who have not appeared in a game yet.

“For one day, the Phillies worked out because they had no positive tests,” McCarthy said. “So, they were doing sort of intrasquad games at the ballpark, but when one of the coaches and one of the clubhouse personnel came down with a positive test after the testing took place on consecutive days, the whole stadium was totally shut down.”

McCarthy noted that during the recent Phillies shutdown, which has since been lifted, players could not even utilize the nearby fields at PDR Park as well.

“I know a lot of guys have tees and areas to work out in their home, but that’s about it,” McCarthy continued. “I think that’s also part of this, is that the rest of the teams in the league — if you go past the virus — are going to have at least nine, if not 10 games, under their belt while the Phillies, Marlins and other teams have, in the Phillies’ case, just three games under their belt.”

How will the integrity and meaning of the season overall be impacted?

The Phillies likely will not be able to play 60 games as scheduled. Especially not the Marlins, who are still shut down. The St. Louis Cardinals have since entered the mix as well for having at least one player test positive, among others, on Saturday.

McCarthy thinks the winning percentage of teams will end up being the deciding factor for teams who qualify for the postseason. Also, he noted the idea of seven-inning doubleheaders in lieu of the traditional nine-inning games.

“Changes are happening on the fly and I think that’s the biggest thing that everybody has to have is an open mind as we go through this,” McCarthy said. “I think if you get past the virus and everybody is healthy and able to play, then I do think you still have to — at the end of the year — say, ‘Ok, it’s one of those things.’ I really do.”

McCarthy said that for the “greater good” of Major League Baseball, and for fans to get back to some sense of normalcy, it is important to accept these quirks to the game to allow it to keep moving forward.

When will the Phillies take the field for their fourth game?

It is not yet known when the Phillies will play again. According to Jon Heyman, the Phillies will not travel to Miami to play their scheduled August 4-6 series at Marlins Park. Rumor has it, their four-game set against the Yankees will be rescheduled to as early as Monday.

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“I can’t tell you that [Phillies-Yankees is] definitively confirmed, but it [looks] like they [aren’t] going to go to Miami and they [instead] play the Yankees in the four-game series that they were supposed to play this week,” McCarthy said. “That was according to Aaron Boone; he kind of ‘let the cat out of the bag’ a little bit that that was going to be the case.”

“That’s still up in the air, but I can’t see them going to Miami to play. I really can’t,” said McCarthy, who added, competitively, it will be interesting if the Phillies can play next week against the Yankees and “get things back to where they want it to be.”

“We’re watching the NBA and the NHL sort of get rolling in their little bubbles … it’s hard because you knew this wouldn’t go 60 games smoothly, that there was going to be a speed bump or two at some point,” McCarthy continued. “The hard part is, that the speed bump occurs four days after the season begins. That’s the real tough part for Major League Baseball to tamp it down.”

Will the Marlins be forced out of Miami, as were the Blue Jays in Toronto?

McCarthy told Shulman that he wonders whether Major League Baseball will try to find a place for the Marlins to play, once most of their tests return negative.

“Like [the Blue Jays] are playing in Buffalo, [maybe] eventually they will find another place to play and then go back to Miami,” McCarthy speculated. “The mayor of Miami-Dade has said that if it were him and the Marlins came back, they would have to quarantine for 14 days before he would allow them to play a game.”

McCarthy’s family life

During the shutdown, McCarthy said his sons Patrick and Tommy have been impacted by the pandemic “the same way it’s impacted a lot of people in the states and around the world.”

But, McCarthy said, he thinks they realize that their friends are in the same boat and are there to support each other. “I think that’s a good thing,” he said.

For Patrick, the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs broadcaster, McCarthy said the pandemic has impacted him “immensely,” but he thinks his son has a “really good attitude about the whole thing.”

“I wish I was this way when I was 25 years old — is that [he thinks] ‘It’s out of his control.’” McCarthy said. “So, he’s trying to do as many things as possible to try to keep himself busy and sharp as a broadcaster, while also working at a golf course to kind of keep busy and to make some extra money.”

“Since it’s our alternate site, they are doing intrasquad games, so he’s going to go up and do a couple of those, which I’m happy about, just to kind of get him out.”

McCarthy’s other son, Tommy, is playing independent league baseball. He calls not having Phillies games to call a “blessing,” because he usually does not get a chance to see him play as much as he does now.

“He’s going to be 23 this weekend and hoping that this will still lead to something. [He’s] just trying to stay sharp more than anything else,” McCarthy said.

Life goes on. For McCarthy, his sons, and the Phillies. Hopefully, games for the Phillies at the professional level can be played as early as Monday.