Five years ago, the Phillies added Tom McCarthy back to their broadcast team after a stint with the New York Mets. At the time he signed a five-year contract to call the middle three innings and do interviews during the game and postgame, and potentially fill in for Harry Kalas. After Kalas' death, McCarthy assumed calling all nine innings for Phillies broadcasts.
The Phillies must be pleased with his work as the team gave McCarthy a five-year contract extension last winter. This came out during an interview with Phillies blog PhilsBaseball.com:
I actually heard that from a lot of people. I never even realized my contract had been public notice or that people had wondered. I even got an email from someone asking if I was coming back this year and I said, “Yeah, why?” They said they heard my contract was up and I said, “It was?” But yes, I signed a new contract last winter for a five year extension. It starts this year, so I’m here for at least another five years after this.
I personally asked McCarthy a few times on Twitter if his contract was renewed and got no response.
My hope is that the Phillies will mix the broadcast up a bit. Fans have been calling for Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen to get some television time to no avail. I personally find McCarthy and Chris Wheeler too similar to put into the booth together, but that likely will be the arrangement, since Wheeler wants to be on television and not radio and the Phillies likely will respect the veteran's wishes.
Thanks to Crossing Broad for passing this along.
