Tom McCarthy says he’s looking forward to working with John Kruk

By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor

During yesterday's "introductory" press conference for new Comcast SportsNet color commentator John Kruk, Philadelphia Phillies play-by-play announcer Tom McCarthy admitted that he's excited to work with the Wall of Famer:  

 "I am. We've had a great relationship with everybody that we've had in the room and in the booth. They've all had great attributes, each of them, including the current guys. But Johnny getting a chance to be here on a consistent basis and also knowing his personality, I think it's going to be a lot of fun."

With the addition of Kruk to Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia's telecasts of the Phillies, play-by-play announcer Tom McCarthy now has the fourth different color commentator that he's worked with since the team parted ways with Chris Wheeler and Gary "Sarge" Matthews after the 2013 season. 

Former Phillies Jamie Moyer and Matt Stairs were the initial replacements for Wheeler and Matthews. Moyer chose to leave after just one season and Stairs left after three years, after the Phillies hired him this offseason to be their hitting coach. Ben Davis joined the team's telecasts in 2015 and will return, along with Gregg Murphy and Mike Schmidt, for the 2017 season.

McCarthy says that his work in both the NFL and college basketball has allowed him to become accustomed to and even enjoy working with multiple different partners:

"I think for all of us, people ask all the time about having one partner each and every game. For football and basketball, I have a different partner pretty much every week, so I kind of like the different personalities."

Even if he doesn't mind the revolving door of color commentators that the Phillies have had in recent years, McCarthy may finally get some stability around him now. Davis seems committed to the position and MLB.com's Todd Zolecki says that Kruk signed a five-year deal to join the telecasts.