Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy to miss Game 4 of the NLCS

McCarthy had been calling a few innings on WIP during the postseason. But don't worry, he's missing Saturday's game for the happiest of reasons: his son's wedding.

Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy will not be on the call on Saturday night.Read moreSTEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer

by Matt Breen

Updated Oct. 22, 2022, 1:43 p.m. ET

Published Oct. 22, 2022, 11:03 a.m. ET

Longtime Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy will trade in his microphone on Saturday night to be the Father of the Groom, as he’ll miss Game 4 of the National League Championship Series to attend his son’s wedding.

McCarthy has spelled Scott Franzke for a few innings on the radio during each postseason game since the TV broadcasts are handled in October by national outlets. Franzke and Larry Andersen will have the radio call Saturday on WIP-FM.

By the time of Saturday’s first pitch, McCarthy will be at the Bucks County wedding reception for his son Patrick and his soon-to-be daughter-in-law Emily.

Patrick McCarthy is the play-by-play voice of the triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs and considered a rising talent in the industry. He has filled in a few times on Phillies radio and TV during the last two seasons and was recently seen on the Phillies broadcast interviewing players in Houston when they clinched a postseason berth.

After the Phillies secured that final out, Tom McCarthy told viewers they were going down to the field where his son was waiting with Rhys Hoskins. It was a cool moment, the dad said.

“I know how hard it was on all of them. I wasn’t always around when they were growing up,” Tom McCarthy said. “My wife, Meg, did an amazing job of making sure that everything was normal in their world. I never thought that any of my kids would follow in my footsteps to try and do this for a living. But I think they realized that I go to work happy every day. I very rarely feel like I have a bad day. I think they see that it’s a great life. To me, it’s gratifying that they would want to do something that I did.”

The younger McCarthy has been in the minors for five seasons, spent offseasons as a substitute teacher, and was a teacher’s assistant in 2020 when the pandemic canceled minor-league games as he followed his dream. As a toddler, he sat on his dad’s lap while Tom McCarthy called minor-league games in Trenton and frequently hung out with his dad in South Philly. Patrick and his brother, Tommy, played college baseball together at TCNJ.