With Spring Training now underway, Phillies TV play-by-play announcer TOM MCCARTHY is gearing up for a summer full of road trips and room service. But this weekend is designated for some much needed family time. McCarthy: “It is an oddity for me to have so much free time in a weekend. I have been really fortunate to have a lot of great opportunities from a work standpoint. A lot of the time, I have basketball or football games to call on weekends when it is not baseball season. When I do have downtime, it is spent with my family. It is special to be able to have that before I go to Spring Training.”
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| McCarthy will spend time with his family before heading to Florida for Spring Training |
BEACH BOY: I am going to take my wife out for dinner on Friday, which I haven’t done in quite some time. My two boys are in college, my one daughter is out visiting my niece at UCLA Law School and my other daughter is going to be at a birthday party. This will give us a chance to catch up a little bit. We just purchased a beach house in Ocean City, N.J., and we are going to spend Saturday getting things ready for the upcoming summer season. It will start with walking the dogs because we do not have a backyard. Then we will probably have a little breakfast at Augie’s and eventually, throughout the morning, we will do a little painting and a little work on the outside of the house. We have been there the last couple of weekends just to get used to it.
HORSE WITH NO NAME: Our plan for Saturday night is to catch a movie. We are still deciding which one, but I think we are going to try and see the new JESSE OWENS movie, “RACE.” My 13-year-old daughter has a horse show on Sunday. She has taken up riding over the last six months. I am excited about that because I have never seen her compete. This will be my first time doing that and probably my only time for a while with Spring Training starting the following week. While everyone in the family is getting ready for their upcoming week on Sunday, I will finish up my notes for the first week of Spring Training and also get my basketball book done for the following Saturday when I call the DePaul-Providence game.
HITTING THE LINKS: I love to play golf. We play a lot when we are down in Clearwater for Spring Training. There are some really nice golf courses there. Belleair Country Club is one we play at a lot. There is only so much hanging out at the apartment or going to restaurants that you can do. I like to get out in the warm weather and enjoy the atmosphere. My big TV show that I am catching up on right now is “THE BLACKLIST” with JAMES SPADER. I do make sure that I watch “NCIS” if I do not catch it during the week. I also try to watch “MODERN FAMILY” as much as I can.
