Posts Tagged ‘Tom McCarthy’

Here’s the radio call courtesy of 1210 WPHT from Chase Utley’s 2nd homer off of Yankees ace C.C. Sabathia last night. It was during the middle innings, so Franzke and LA weren’t in the booth, however Tom McCarthy does a fine job with it (he even gets authentically excited!) and Sarge comes in to finish it off with his ‘Cadillac Time’ proclamation. Listen up:
Photo courtesy of NickSixers Flickr account
For the past couple of nights during the Comcast broadcast of the Phillies game, the guys in the booth have been utterly fascinated with the almost full moon that has been in the sky like it doesn’t happen once a month or something. In the middle of last night’s game, while it’s still a 1-0 game in the 5th mind you, Tom McCarthy started to reminisce about the moon from the previous night when he dropped the BOMB on us that he thinks we could see the planet Jupiter through the lens of the HD CSN camera.
So while T-Mac was explaining that you can practically make out the moons around Jupiter, Sarge Matthews chimed in to let Tom know that, “those would be the rings.” Tom politely explained to Sarge that the planet with the rings is Saturn, and Sarge — who is obviously no Copernicus — told him that, “you can call the planet whatever one you want — I’m checking out the rings.”
It really is broadcasting at it’s finest. Cue the wolf howling sounds:
In Sarge’s defense, while you nerds were studying your Astrology Astronomy textbook, Sarge was probably putting in a few extra hours of BP and fielding practice getting ready for a successful 16 year career as a pro ball player. And honestly, would you rather know which planets have rings around it or be the MVP of the 1983 NLCS? Because you can’t have both!
One of the most underrated aspects of Phillies broadcasts being on a regular channel like myphl17 is definitely the promos they make the announcers read prior to some innings. When they’re on Comcast, they are basically just promoting other sports shows or something that could be easily segue’d in to. But when you mix in some shitty programming, the outcome is usually hilarious. Like this:
I gotta tell you, my favorite of all-time broadcaster promo happened last year when the Phils were still on CW57 and Harry Kalas was reading a commercial for that crappy new 90210 redux and read it, “Tune in this Tuesday for the premiere of an all-new season of ninety-twenty-ten.”
haha, miss you Harry.

You think it’s easy being the Sarge, don’t you? Well, you would be right!
Because when you work as hard as he does, with the color broadcasting duties and being a world-renown author as well as an ex-MLB superstar, you get treated to the finer things in life. Like limo rides to and from the games, special accommodations in only the finest hotels on the road, lavish steak dinners that would make royalty jealous, and when you’re standing on the Bud Light Rooftop Deck above Ashburn Alley waiting to go on-air for the pre-game show, you get fanned by producers so you’re not sweating for the camera.
Oh yeah, and you can spill beers with absolutely no repercussion.
To get a glimpse of behind-the-scenes Sarge, I’m gonna kindly ask if you’d JUMP.
Shame on me for not mentioning anything about it yesterday, but on July 5th, the day after America’s birthday, Sarge Matthews (59) and Tom McCarthy (41) both celebrated theirs. It was quite the day of hijinks in the myphl17 broadcast booth, including this happy birthday popcorn bath courtesy of the Phillie Phanatic.
I’m sure there will be documentation of the rest of foolishness later today, but for now, enjoy this:
Happy belated birthday, gentlemen.
IT’S WORKING!

Last night, the venerable Chris Wheeler came thisclose to giving The Fightins some on-air recognition.
In the top of the 11th, after Ryan Howard’s BOMB to left field was hauled in by Jeremy Reed near the FreeCreditReport.com sign, Tom McCarthy and Chris Wheeler decided to take a look at the replay. When Wheels made mention of the advertisement where Reed made the catch, he nearly broke into the Free Credit Report jingle when he caught himself and realized that it would make a terrific blog post on The Fightins.
Here’s the transcription of the conversation that followed (video, after the jump):
Wheels: Right into that Freee credit report dot com… sign
T-Mac: Uh-oh
Wheels: Isn’t that how that commercial goes?
T-Mac: Well, I think you gotta draw it out a little bit more…
Wheels: No, I’m not gonna do that. Because then it’ll be on [inaudible] something like your vocal act the other day and I’d rather not feature that.
T-Mac: I think that would be great.
Wheels: Well, good. But it won’t happen. I hope. /drops subject
***
One can only assume that the “vocal act” Wheeler was referring to was Tom McCarthy’s awkward rendition of “We Ain’t Gonna Take It” from last Friday. If you agree with that, one can also surmise that the “something” Wheeler was referring to was The Fightins dot com, who featured the T-Mac “vocal act” on Monday morning.
It’s a bit of a stretch, I know, but I don’t think they can avoid the fanfare surrounding their popularity forever.
Sooner or later, they WILL acknowledge this site. Just remember guys — I poke fun because I love.
XOXO,
meechie
One of the highlights of my weekend — which also points out how pathetically boring my life has become — came on Friday Night when an oblivious Tom McCarthy failed to realize he was live! on-air and started humming along to the Twisted Sister’s anti-conformity anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It” as it blared from the Dodger Stadium PA system. He may seem nerdy, but deep down he’s an anarchist rebel.
The first :30 seconds is some uncomfortable dead air mixed in with T-Mac’s humming, but if you stick around until that’s done you’re rewarded with a very special Twisted Sister/T-Mac duet. Enjoy:
What an honor bestowed upon The Fightins dot com. Thanks, Wheels.

(.gif wrapped by the one and only, Tug Haines from Long Drive)
If you are an avid follower of the famed Sarge Matthews Twitter account — like muah — surely you’ve read about the little “contest” that he proposed the other day. If you haven’t, no biggie, the following e-mail that showed up in the ol’ inbox yesterday will clearly explain everything. It was sent to me by a The Fightins dot com reader and visitor of Petco Park named Collin who decided to test the validity of this so-called “contest” on Tuesday night.
I’ll let Collin take it from here:
Hey guys, so the Sarge (@G_Sarge_M) put out a Twitter APB on June 1 that read, “First one to bring a “IT’S MUFFIN TIME” sign to the broadcast booth wins a free hat.” Naturally, my friend Mike and I loved the idea of free WFC memorabilia and constructed a makeshift sign out of a Coors Light box at Petco Park [on Tuesday] after bagging a Cole Hamels autograph during warm-ups. We made it up to the press area with the MUFFIN sign only to be stopped by security. Those laid back SD security guards didn’t really believe us and wouldn’t let us pass… until T-Mac walked right by us! We told T-Mac about the Twitter “contest”; he laughed and told us that he really wanted to get this sign over to Wheels/LA/Sarge. So we got the Tom McCarthy sponsored tour of the press box, got some huge laughs out of the guys (Wheels first words to Sarge were “You asshole…look what you’ve done!”) and got a picture with MUFFIN and SARGE, which was taken by T-Mac himself. Mike is in the Werth shirt (right), I’m in the red Northampton Community College tee.
Enjoy!
Collin
‘Enjoy’ is an understatement, Collin. That story is borderline legendary.
Anyway, here’s the proof. Featuring the brilliant photography skills of Tom McCarthy:

After the jump, Collin breaks out the “Muffin Time” sign in the crowd and Sarge talks about these two extraordinary gentleman during last night’s broadcast…
A Twitter-inspired post…

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