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Phillies

Tom McCarthy is Great – You Just Don’t Get the Difference Between a TV Broadcaster and a Radio Broadcaster

Matt Schultz

By Matt Schultz

Published:

Mar 2, 2019; Clearwater, FL, USA; Philadelphia Phillies Broadcaster Tom Mccarthy speaks as they formally introduce right fielder Bryce Harper (3) as a Philadelphia Phillie at Spectrum Field.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Before we get too far, let me recap why Tom McCarthy has been thrust into the discourse for readers who may just be joining us.

Here’s what happened:

On Wednesday night, Derek Hill hit a massive pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning to give the Phillies the lead over the Nationals and eventually win the game. This was TMac’s call of the play:

People didn’t love it. In fact, a lot of people online got pretty mad about it, especially when they compared it with Scott Franzke’s radio call of the same play on WIP:

And critics have been using these clips to make sweeping judgments about TMac:

That’s the gist of it. And as the headline suggests, I couldn’t disagree with the critics more. In my humble opinion, if you don’t like Tom McCarthy in the Phillies broadcast booth, you’re out of your damn mind. I love the guy. He’s one of my favorite broadcasters, and I think he and John Kruk together are the gold standard of what a baseball TV broadcast team should be. I’m not saying this particular call was all that great; it wasn’t Tom’s best, sure. But to say he’s bad in the booth because Scott Franzke’s call was better shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what a TV broadcaster’s job is and what a radio broadcaster’s job is. These are completely different roles, and they demand very different styles of broadcasting.

With TV, obviously, audiences can see the game. They don’t need the action described to them the way radio listeners do. The way baseball TV booths earn their airtime is by being people audiences enjoy spending time with. The booth needs chemistry. It needs banter. We want to hear their stories. We want to hear them shoot the shit, joke around, and have fun. The broadcasters need to know baseball, of course, but that can’t be the only thing they bring to the table (see Ruben Amaro Jr… sorry for the drive-by, Rube… I do think he’s gotten better over time, but still…).

These guys need to be able to talk about the game in real time in a smart way while also doing an entertaining two-and-a-half-hour podcast every day. That’s a challenging job, and to me, TMac and Kruk are the best in the business at it. TMac is the perfect straight man to Kruk — he plays it expertly. He’ll tee him up with the exact right question and then let the man cook. The guys make me laugh, they have a calm, positive vibe, and they know baseball. That’s what their job is.

Radio is different. The big difference, of course, is that audiences can’t see what’s happening. The radio broadcaster has to paint you a picture with words. The medium lends itself to — and demands — more flowery descriptions, more cinematic prose, more baseball-as-poetry language, all in order to make the game feel alive. Scott Franzke is excellent at this. He rules. Bedlam at the Bank. Déjà Vu in D.C. That’s what’s up. That stuff’s great. The alliteration, the excitement in his voice, the energy — Franzke says what he sees in a way that makes you feel like you’re seeing it, too.

But that’s not Tom’s job.

If Tom was on TV and called the games the way Franzke does — or the way any great baseball radio announcer does — that would be annoying as hell. TV viewers don’t need over-the-top yelling, indulgent descriptions, or memorable catchphrases that Fanatics can print on a T-shirt. In the biggest moments of a game, that sort of stuff would just get in the way of what’s important: whatever’s happening on the field. Plenty of TV sports broadcasts make the mistake of doing too much (Guerschon Yabusele dunks and Kate Scott yells “Yaba-daba-do”… we all remember this… apologies for the drive-by, Kate…). I, for one, am glad the Phillies broadcast isn’t one of them.

screenshot via r/sixers

In summation: You’re comparing reading a novel to having The Office on while folding laundry. One is vividly creating a world you can’t actually see. The other is keeping you company with some fun, familiar characters who make you laugh sometimes. Just because one is good doesn’t mean the other one is bad. Just because you prefer one doesn’t mean the other is worse. Apples to oranges. TMac rules.

Matt Schultz
Matt Schultz

Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com

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