{"id":551822,"date":"2023-02-27T11:24:56","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T16:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=551822"},"modified":"2025-01-16T16:03:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T21:03:19","slug":"baseball-analyst-tim-mccarver-remembered-551822","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/baseball-analyst-tim-mccarver-remembered-551822\/","title":{"rendered":"Why baseball analyst Tim McCarver was the best of the modern era"},"content":{"rendered":"

Curt Smith reflects on how the late Hall of Famer brought a cerebral edge to the game he loved.<\/h2>\n

Curt Smith<\/em><\/a> is a senior lecturer in the Department of English at the <\/em>University of Rochester<\/em><\/a>. His 18 books include <\/em>Voices of the Game, named one of \u201cthe 100 best baseball books ever written\u201d by <\/em>Esquire magazine. His latest is an official National Baseball Hall of Fame book, <\/em>Memories from the Microphone: A Century of Baseball Broadcasting. Smith was also a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush during and after his presidency.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI think there is a natural bridge from being a catcher to talking about the view of the game,\u201d Tim McCarver once said. The former All-Star baseball player and even more celebrated broadcaster died February 16, at 81, having expressed that view better than any sports analyst of his time.<\/p>\n

Born 52 days before Pearl Harbor, McCarver was a fine major-league catcher from 1959 to 1980\u2014among only seven modern-day four-decade players. He was a broadcaster for even longer, becoming a Hall of Fame television analyst from 1980 to 2013, working for the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets and Yankees, San Francisco Giants, and St. Louis Cardinals, and almost as many networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox.<\/p>\n

The Tennessee native aired a record 23 World Series, 20 All-Star Games, 27 American or National League Championship Series (LCS), and four decades of \u201cGame of the Week.\u201d His vitae lists three Outstanding Sports Personality-Sports Event Analyst Emmies, seven Telly Awards, tenure on each major TV network, and six books on the sport, fusing strategy, comedy\u2014and honesty, above all.<\/p>\n

McCarver\u2019s appeal flowed from knowing that baseball is not an island; rather, it is part of culture as a whole. In one breath, the Broadway junkie could compare the batting stance of Ted Williams and Stan Musial\u2014then reference Stephen Sondheim\u2019s \u201cThe Little Things You Do Together,\u201d saying, \u201cTonight, it was the little things the Mets did together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully said, \u201cMy best friend on a road trip is a book.\u201d McCarver\u2019s could be, too. In an inning, he might talk of art, note how Harry Truman had thrown \u201cpitches left- and right-handed,\u201d and add that \u201cYogi Berra would call him amphibious.\u201d He was said to talk a lot, which was true. He also had a lot to say. McCarver\u2019s mind was restless, his curiosity endless, his exuberance contagious. You almost never left him without learning something new.<\/p>\n

McCarver joined the Cardinals in 1959 at 17 out of high school in Memphis, becoming the regular catcher in 1963. By 1980, his playing career had weaved through Montreal, Boston, again St. Louis, and Philadelphia. After retiring, he cohosted HBO\u2019s series Race for the Pennant<\/em>, joined NBC\u2019s backup Game of the Week<\/em> and Phillies radio\/TV, and in 1983 left for the Mets\u2019 WWOR TV. Soon, the New York Post<\/em>\u2019s Phil Mushnick wrote: \u201c[He] has rekindled hope that sophisticated baseball has a place in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1984, McCarver graced the syndicated Greats of the Game<\/em> and the All-Star Game and League Championship Series. A year later, ABC\u2019s Howard Cosell released a book scalding his own network. McCarver replaced him on the World Series, clicking with play-by-play man Al Michaels. \u201cIt was like [doing] a jigsaw puzzle,\u201d said Michaels, \u201cand finding all the pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1989, Michaels, McCarver, and Jim Palmer were calling the World Series for ABC when an earthquake rocked the San Francisco area, the trio toppling to the floor. The next year, McCarver began a four-year sentence on CBS\u2019s every-other-week Game of the Week<\/em>, lack of continuity crippling ratings. In 1996, McCarver keyed Fox\u2019s first year of coverage, the Yankees taking their first World Series since 1978 on the night after manager Joe Torre\u2019s brother received a heart transplant. \u201cFrank Torre is on the second day of his second heart,\u201d McCarver said. \u201cJoe Torre is in the fifty-sixth year of his first one. Both are overflowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2001, the Yankees led the Diamondbacks, 2-1, in the World Series\u2019 seventh and deciding game. Arizona loaded the bases in the ninth, Yankees closer Mariano Rivera needing two outs for another title. McCarver noted on Fox that \u201cRivera throws inside to left-handers, and left-handers get a lot of broken-bat hits to left, into the shallow parts of the outfield.\u201d Pitched inside, Luis Gonzalez swung and hit the ball into short left field: D-backs win, 3-2. To legendary baseball writer Roger Angell, McCarver\u2019s became \u201cThe Call of Calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

By then, the Mets had axed McCarver\u2019s $500,000 salary, with less-pricey Tom Seaver replacing him: \u201ca decision so small,\u201d wrote the New York Daily News<\/em>, \u201cit could fit inside a batting glove.\u201d McCarver joined the 1999\u20132001 Yanks, broadcast the 2002 Giants, then left exclusively for Fox. He received the Hall of Fame\u2019s 2012 Ford C. Frick Award for \u201cbroadcast excellence,\u201d did a nonpareil 14 straight World Series with Joe Buck from 2000 to 2013, and aired the 2014\u20132019 Cardinals on Fox Sports Midwest, coming home.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, McCarver was asked what baseball meant to him. He said it had hurt him physically and helped cerebrally. Catching pitches behind the plate for two decades left his \u201cleft thumb twisted and torn. Fastballs and sliders are the jackhammers of the catcher\u2019s life.\u201d Baseball became so much a part of his life that yearly he vacationed at season\u2019s end. \u201cOtherwise,\u201d he said, \u201cI spend too much time thinking about the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2020, he opted not to work at 78, his doctor citing COVID-19 travel safety. Baseball then bid Tim McCarver an affectionate farewell, never more than in the last few days\u2014all of us having learned from, laughed with, and marveled at a person whose voice was the voice of a friend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Baseball broadcasting expert Curt Smith reflects on how the late Hall of Famer brought a cerebral edge to the game he loved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":551872,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29212],"tags":[16962,20542,16072],"class_list":["post-551822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voices-opinion","tag-curt-smith","tag-department-of-english","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy baseball analyst Tim McCarver was the best of the modern era<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The University of Rochester's Curt Smith reflects on how late Hall of Famer Tim McCarver brought a cerebral edge to the game he loved.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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