As fans are glued to their phones at baseball games, the risk of getting hit with a screaming foul ball is real. But Saturday afternoon, it was Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy who absorbed a foul ball with his chest.
During the fourth inning of the Phillies spring training game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia outfielder Adam Haseley fouled a pitch straight back into the broadcast booth where McCarthy and analyst Ruben Amaro Jr. were calling the action.
Tom McCarthy gets rocked by a foul ball and says "that was funny" pic.twitter.com/9wAaNsb5fH
— Brandon Contes (@BrandonContes) March 21, 2022
“Oh right up into the booth!” McCarthy could be heard saying on the NBC Sports Philadelphia broadcast. “Oh yea,” said Amaro, a former major leaguer. “In fact, I might have sort of either saved you or tipped it up into your body.”
“I got it right up here,” McCarthy said. “Just gotta tighten up the chest a little bit.”
NBC Sports Philadelphia quickly showed the replay to give fans a look inside the booth. As the ball was fouled back, Amaro fully extended his arm and lunged to block it from hitting his broadcast partner. But McCarthy, who was looking down, was not totally saved and absorbed the foul ball with his chest.
“Those are my hands again,” Amaro said, poking fun at himself for missing the grab. “That’s why they moved me into the outfield.”
“That was funny,” McCarthy added.
Maybe we have different definitions of “funny” but kudos to McCarthy for being able to laugh off getting hit in the chest by a foul ball. According to the versatile broadcaster, he was looking down at his computer when the baseball came screaming into the booth.
“Ruben, I appreciate the assistance,” McCarthy said as NBC Sports Philadelphia showed the foul ball one more time before going to commercial. “Folks are asking if I’m OK, I actually didn’t even feel much of it,” McCarthy insisted with a laugh.
