Response from Scott Palmer

Surprisingly, I received a reply rather quickly in regards to my recent complaint about Tom McCathy's announcing style. My email to Scott Palmer (the producer of Phillies' broadcasts) and his response are copied below. While he doesn't address my specific complaints, I am glad he took the time to say he read my letter and tried to reassure me that all would be fine. I can't say that I agree with him and I hope he took my criticism (and others since I know others sent emails yesterday) and perhaps mentioned a few things to Tom McCarthy. Once can only hope. It's not like I want the guy to be fired on the spot, I just would like to see him be more on our side.

My email to Scott and his reply:

Scott,

For starters, allow me to thank you for taking the time for reading this.  I am sure you
are a busy man.  But, I feel I must express my displeasure with the decision to use Tom
McCarthy as the television play by play announcer.  Before you dismiss my opinion as a
knee jerk reaction to Harry's passing and feeling that no one can live up to his
legendary calls, I can unequivocally say that I disliked Tom's announcing previous to
Harry's death.

I think Tom has a great deep broadcasting voice and technically does a good job with
announcing.  He would actually  make a fine national broadcaster, like for Fox or ESPN.
However, I just feel that he doesn't root for the Phillies and doesn't show enough
support for our team.  Too many times I have felt that his calls of opposing teams' home
runs or good plays are overzealous.  I don't expect him to be boring and lackadaisical
but his calls for all teams are equally excited.  He also seems to go gaga over other
teams' players like Jorge Cantu and David Wright. While they are fine players and I would
like to hear more information about them I also don't want to have their accomplishments
thrown in my face over and over again.

Please understand, I don't think the Phillies' broadcast should have super fans gushing
over every thing that they do and some objectivity needs to injected into the broadcasts.
However, I find that Tom is well... too impartial.  I want a guy in the booth that roots
for the Phillies.  I know that Harry was once a big Senators fan just like McCarthy is a
Mets fan and he also broadcasted previously for the Astros but he came to love our team
and was part of it.  I just don't think that Tom will become a fellow fan and solely
views this as a job.

What lead me to believe this is that his description of where Elijah Dukes' monster home
run last night landed was "Mike Piazza territory".  While I don't think he
would be audacious enough to try and rename Ashburn Alley after a Met (whether he hailed
from Norristown or not), he showed his rooting interest by ignoring the fact that Ryan
Howard has hit several homers there as well.  Sure, Mike Piazza is a future hall of fame
player who hit some monster shots in his time.  But, he only hit 2 homer runs in his
career at CBP and if he hit one into the alley then it just shows that it's something
that remembers instead of the monster shots that Howard had there.  His true colors
showed in that description.

I suppose I have fallen victim to hyperbole in this email.  But if you can't overreact
being a fan then when can you?  I think I will have to put my TV on mute from now on and
listen to Larry and Scott instead.  I find their broadcast much more enjoyable.



Thanks for taking my opinion in consideration.


Hi Brian,
Thanks for taking the time to write a very detailed e-mail.  I always want to know how
the fans feel.  I would reply to your criticisms by recalling how Harry used to recount
how the fans reacted to him poorly after he took over for Bill Campbell.  Hopefully fans
today will give Tom the same time they gave H. back then.  I agree that fans have every
right to be passionate about their ball club, and the people who broadcast it.  We are
lucky to have such fans here in Philly.

Sincerely,

Scott Palmer