James Timothy McCarver (born October 16, 1941) is an American
sportscaster and former
professional baseball catcher.
McCarver played for the
St. Louis Cardinals,
Philadelphia Phillies,
Montreal Expos, and
Boston Red Sox between 1959 and 1980. He appeared in the
MLB All-Star Game in 1966 and 1967, and was the starting catcher for the
World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals in 1964 and 1967.
After his playing career ended, McCarver began a career as a broadcaster, most notably for
Fox Sports. McCarver called a then-record 23 World Series and 20 All-Star Games. He won three
Sports Emmy Awards, and was the recipient of the 2012
Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting.
[McCarver gets call from Baseball Hall of Fame](_blank)
''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' (July 15, 2012)
Early playing career
McCarver was born in
Memphis, Tennessee. McCarver, following his years with Memphis'
Christian Brothers High School, was signed by the
St. Louis Cardinals in 1959. Playing with the Cardinals' minor league teams of
Keokuk and
Rochester, McCarver reached the MLB level for the first time at the age of only 17.
He spent the 1960, 1961, and 1962 seasons shuttling between St. Louis and the minor league teams of
Memphis,
Charleston (West Virginia), and
Atlanta. In 1963, he was called up to the majors for good.
St. Louis Cardinals
In 1964, his tiebreaking home run in the 10th inning won Game 5 of the
World Series. In 1966, McCarver was named to the
All-Star Team, scored the winning run in the 10th inning of that
1966 All-Star Game, and became the first catcher to lead the National League in triples, with 13. In 1967, he finished second to teammate
Orlando Cepeda for the
National League Most Valuable Player award. McCarver was a member of two
World Series championships during his time in St. Louis. He was the favorite catcher of the notoriously temperamental
Bob Gibson, and fostered a relationship with young pitcher
Steve Carlton that would keep him in the major leagues later in his career. In 1968, he was the Cardinals catcher as they took the NL pennant but lost to the
Detroit Tigers in a seven-game
World Series.
Later career
upright|left|thumb|McCarver in 2017
After a trade to the
Philadelphia Phillies involving, among others, his teammate
Curt Flood (which led to
Flood's lawsuit over baseball's
reserve clause) before the 1970 season, McCarver played for the Phillies,
Expos,
Red Sox, and another brief stint with the Cardinals (he was replaced on the roster by the rookie
Keith Hernandez). McCarver's career might have taken a different turn in 1975, when, according to
Peter Gammons, McCarver (then 33 and Boston's third-string catcher) was rumored as a potential
managerial replacement for struggling skipper
Darrell Johnson. McCarver, however, was released (to return to the Phillies), and Johnson led the Red Sox to the '75 AL pennant.
During his first stint with the Phillies, McCarver caught
Rick Wise's
no-hitter on June 23, 1971. At the end of the season, the Phillies traded Wise to the Cardinals for
Steve Carlton, the deal reuniting McCarver with Carlton. During the 1972 season, the Phillies traded McCarver to the Montreal Expos where, on October 2, he caught the second of
Bill Stoneman's two career no-hitters.
On July 4, 1976, McCarver hit what is known as a "
Grand Slam Single" when, after hitting a grand slam, he passed his teammate
Garry Maddox on the basepath. While hosting the
HBO special ''The Not-so-Great Moments in Sports'', McCarver later claimed to have said to the umpire, "I didn't pass him, he lapped me." Asked how Maddox could have done that, McCarver replied, "Sheer speed." The event was commemorated in the book ''The Baseball Hall of Shame 3'' as "Tim McCarver's Grand Sob."
McCarver finished his career as the personal catcher for
Steve Carlton for the Phillies in the late 1970s. Carlton preferred McCarver to Phillies regular
Bob Boone. It was quipped that when Carlton and McCarver eventually died, they would be buried 60 feet, 6 inches apart.
He retired after the 1979 season to begin a broadcasting career. McCarver briefly returned to duty in September 1980, thus becoming one of only 29 players in baseball history to date to appear in Major League games in four different decades (1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s). He caught 121
shutouts during his career, ranking him 9th all-time among major league catchers.
Broadcasting career
As a broadcaster, McCarver has enjoyed prominence as a
color commentator on the network level. He has won three
Emmy Awards for Sports Event Analyst.
He began his broadcasting career at
WPHL-TV (Channel 17) in Philadelphia, where he was paired with
Richie Ashburn and
Harry Kalas for Phillies games, before co-hosting
HBO's ''
Race for the Pennant'' in 1978 and working as a backup ''
Game of the Week'' commentator for
NBC in 1980.
McCarver has called baseball for all four major U.S. television networks. His work at NBC was followed by stints with
ABC (where he teamed with
Don Drysdale on backup ''
Monday Night Baseball'' games in 1984 and
Al Michaels and
Jim Palmer from 1985 to 1989 and again from 1994 to 1995 under the
"Baseball Network" umbrella) and
CBS (where he teamed with
Jack Buck from 1990 to 1991 and
Sean McDonough from 1992 to 1993). McCarver was paired with
Joe Buck on the
Fox network's
MLB telecasts, a role he held from 1996 to 2013.
McCarver called his first World Series in for ABC as a last minute replacement for
Howard Cosell. Cosell had been removed from the broadcasts altogether after excerpts from his controversial book ''
I Never Played the Game'' (which was critical of Cosell's co-workers at ABC Sports) appeared in ''
TV Guide''. Perhaps McCarver's most notable assignment for ABC prior to the 1985 World Series was as a field reporter for the
1984 National League Championship Series.
Also while at
ABC, he also served as a correspondent and play-by-play announcer for
Freestyle skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics in
Calgary. McCarver also co-hosted the prime time coverage of
1992 Winter Olympics with
Paula Zahn for CBS.
He has also called games locally for the Phillies from
1980 to
1982,
Mets from
1983 to
1998,
Yankees from
1999 to
2001, and
Giants in
2002. However, McCarver wasn't able to call the World Series wins by the Phillies in , Mets in , and Yankees in (all three wins were broadcast on
NBC, but McCarver wasn't part of the broadcasting team any of those times). A notable call by McCarver followed the Yankees' victory in the 1996 World Series, which took place two days after manager
Joe Torre's brother Frank received a heart transplant. As the Yankees celebrated, McCarver said: "Frank Torre is on the second day of his second heart. Joe Torre is in the 56th year of his first one. Both are overflowing."
McCarver is the only sportscaster to have covered the
New York Mets and two of their rivals on a regular basis. He is one of three sportscasters to have covered the
Mets and the Yankees (the others being
Fran Healy and
Tom Seaver) and one of three sportscasters to have covered both the
Mets and the Phillies (the others being
Todd Kalas and
Tom McCarthy).
In 2003, McCarver set a record by broadcasting his 13th
World Series on national television (surpassing
Curt Gowdy); in all, he called 24 Fall Classics for ABC, CBS, and Fox. Also, from 1984 (when he served as a field reporter for ABC's
NLCS coverage) to 2013 (when he served as color analyst for Fox's coverage of the
ALCS), McCarver never missed commentating on at least one League Championship Series per year.
McCarver announced March 27, 2013 that he would leave
Fox after the 2013 season. His final Fox broadcast was October 30, 2013, as the
Boston Red Sox defeated the
St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 to win the
2013 World Series. On December 8, 2013 he was hired to be a part-time analyst for the Cardinals on
Fox Sports Midwest. He teamed with
Dan McLaughlin to call 30 games in the 2014 season.
His first game called for the Cardinals was on April 28, 2014, when they hosted the Milwaukee Brewers. At the conclusion of the season, McCarver stated that he had not yet decided whether to come back to the Cardinals' booth in 2015. However, McCarver returned to the Cardinals booth for 40 games in 2015, and continued to call a select number of games each year through 2019. In July 2020 it was announced that McCarver would not be working any telecasts during the team's shortened 2020 season, citing his doctor's recommendations due to health concerns related to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic.
McCarver also hosted a nationally syndicated sports interview program, ''
The Tim McCarver Show'', from 2000 until 2017 when it was replaced by ''The
James Brown Show''.
Criticism
McCarver has elicited criticism throughout his broadcasting career.
During the
1992 National League Championship Series, he criticized
Deion Sanders, who also had become an
NFL star, for playing both sports on the same day. For his criticism, Sanders dumped a bucket of water on McCarver three times while he was covering the National League pennant winning
Atlanta Braves' clubhouse celebration for CBS. After being doused with the water, McCarver shouted at Sanders, "You are a real man, Deion. I'll say that." Also during the 1992 post-season (when McCarver worked for
CBS),
Norman Chad criticized McCarver in ''
Sports Illustrated'' by saying that he's someone who "when you ask him the time, will tell you how a watch works", a reference to McCarver's habit of over-analyzing.
In Game 4 of the
1997 American League Championship Series, on a wild pitch with runners dashing around the bases, when umpire
Durwood Merrill gestured to where the ball was, McCarver sarcastically commented that "maybe he was trying to tell ''himself'' where the ball is!" Merrill took offense to the comment, and fired back in his autobiography that he was letting the other umpires know that the situation was under control.
When rule questions came up during a broadcast, McCarver misstated a rule. After a
St. Louis Cardinals balk in Game 4 of the
2006 NLCS, McCarver explained, ''"You have to have 'one thousand one' when coming to a stop, and you have to stop your glove in the same place every time in front of your body,"'' when the rules state that there must be merely a complete discernible stop anywhere in front of the pitcher's body; no certain duration or location is necessary.
In October 2008, just before the
2008 NLCS, McCarver made public his feelings about
Manny Ramirez, calling him "despicable" and criticizing Ramirez for his perceived sloppy, lazy play in
Boston and how he had suddenly turned it around in
Los Angeles. Ramirez declined comment.
In 2010, he compared the
New York Yankees treatment of former manager
Joe Torre to the treatment meted out by
Nazi Germany and
Stalinist Russia to generals who fell out of favour with their leaders. After receiving negative comments on his position, McCarver apologized.
Music career
On October 9, 2009, McCarver released a cover album of
jazz standards entitled ''Tim McCarver Sings Songs from the Great American Songbook''.
Awards and honors

Baseball
*Two-time
World Series champion
*Two-time National League All-Star
*2010 Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame inductee.
Broadcasting
*Three-time
Sports Emmy Award winner (Outstanding Sports Event Analyst)
*2012
Ford C. Frick Award winner
The
minor league baseball stadium in Memphis was christened
Tim McCarver Stadium in 1978; it was replaced by a new downtown stadium (named
AutoZone Park in a
naming rights arrangement) in 2000.
Works
*
*
See also
*
List of St. Louis Cardinals team records
*
List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders
*
List of Major League Baseball players who played in four decades
References
External links
Tim McCarverFord C. Frick Award biography at the National Baseball Hall of Fame
Tim McCarverat SABR (Baseball BioProject)
*Tim McCarver
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCarver, Tim
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