Philadelphia Phillies and Major League Baseball 2020 regular season days lost to the COVID-19 pandemic: 25.
Joel Sherman at the New York Post wrote on the status of non-player jobs in Major League Baseball during the COVID-19 shutdown:
“No team has to impose furloughs or reductions and clubs such as the Braves, Giants and Phillies have already let non-playing employees covered by the UEC know that they will be paid through May. But there were organizations that were anticipating the financial crunch and were not initially supportive of paying employees even in April without games and, thus, revenue coming in.”
Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic also wrote on the issue of potential furloughs and payroll reductions in MLB:
“Effective May 1, Commissioner Rob Manfred will suspend Uniform Employee Contracts, enabling teams to furlough employees or reduce their pay, according to major-league sources. Teams would not be required to take such measures, but baseball’s decision would provide the possibility of relief for clubs facing the most significant financial duress as the 2020 season remains on hold.”
Now for the latest Philadelphia Phillies news from local and national resources:
We’ve been strongly advocating the case for Dick Allen to enter the Hall of Fame here at The Bell, and Matt Breen of The Inquirer writes on Mike Schmidt‘s take on the issue:
“Allen was a mentor, Schmidt said, in his second tour with the Phillies. He helped guide the cast of young Phillies – Schmidt, Larry Bowa, Greg Luzinski, Garry Maddox, and Bob Boone – who would form the nucleus of one of the greatest eras in franchise history. And four decades later, Schmidt has his arm around Allen’s shoulder as he advocates for his former teammate’s place in the Hall of Fame.”
Jim Salisbury at NBC Sports Philadelphia wrote on the 1980 Phillies six-game victory over the 2008 Phillies in a Strat-O-Matic simulated series between the two franchise world championship teams:
“With the baseball world shut down by the coronavirus health crisis, we were looking for ways to satisfy our baseball cravings. The good folks at Strat-O-Matic graciously agreed to run a best-of-seven computer simulation between the 1980 and 2008 Phillies, using the actual statistics from those seasons.”
Sunday was the 12th anniversary of the passing of local baseball icon John Marzano. The former Temple University star and big-leaguer had become a respected and beloved analyst with what was then Comcast, now NBC Sports Philadelphia. Here are a couple of nice videos which aired at the time of his tragic accidental death back in 2008:
Philadelphia area COVID-19 updates are provided at the Department of Health site. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also has its own dedicated PA coronavirus information and resource page.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the NIH (National Institutes of Health have tremendous resources on updates and the national response.
You can view the archives for these Lunch Bell reports at any time. They are released every day all year-round barring some unusual circumstance. Each report highlights important updates on the Phillies and MLB, including articles curated from around the web, social media posts, and video.
Be sure to follow ‘The Bell’ all across social media at our @philliesbell handle: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and TikTok. Also, visit our Phillies Bell YouTube channel for a growing selection of video clips.
FINAL NOTE: Phillies Wall of Famer and third baseman Willie Jones had a record-setting day on this date in the 1949 season.
MATT VEASEY 