To Absent Friends - Tim McCarver

Tim McCarver

1941-2023

Tim McCarver, a twenty-one year veteran of Major League Baseball, died this past week at the age of 82.  McCarver was one of those few players who played in four different decades, 1959-1980.  It was a career that spanned over 1,900 games and produced 1,501 hits, 97 home runs, 645 RBI, and a .271 lifetime batting average, but the mere numbers don't capture the hard-nosed all around good player, a catcher, that McCarver was.  

His career was spent primarily with the Cardinals and the Phillies.  How good a catcher was he?  Well, he was the preferred catcher to two pitchers of whom you may have heard:  Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton.  How's that for a couple of references?

He also played in three World Series, all with the Cardinals, in 1964, 1967, and 1968.  He played in all 21 of those games, had 71 at bats, 2 home runs and 11 RBI and hit .311.

Several generations of baseball fans know Tim McCarver only as the color analyst for Fox Broadcasting who did All-Star games, Playoff and World Series games with play-by-play man Joe Buck.  For some reason, social media always seemed to be filled with brickbats aimed at McCarver, which I could never quite understand.  I always thought that McCarver was quite good and insightful, and I was sorry when he retired from the Fox team.  I missed him on those broadcasts.

I also admit to having an affinity for McCarver since the 1960's when I learned that he was educated at a Catholic high school in Memphis that was staffed by the Christian Brothers.  So he and I had that in common.  Whenever McCarver's teams visited a city, he would find out of there was a Christian Brothers community in the area, and he would leave tickets for the Brothers to come see the games.  Pretty nice.

RIP Tim McCarver.

 

Cardinals vs. Red Sox

It turns out  Major League Baseball could have just skipped three rounds of Playoffs and had the St. Louis and Boston, the teams with the best records in their Leagues go directly to the World Series this year.  This would have made the purists who long for the days of two eight team leagues happy, but it sure would have deprived fans in Pittsburgh of a lot of excitement this Fall.

This is the fourth time that these two teams meet in the Fall Classic, so expect to see a lot of the following:

• Black & white highlights of Enos Slaughter's "mad dash" to home plate, and endless debates about whether or not Johnny Pesky held the ball too long.
• Nostalgic hand wringing over Ted Williams' poor performance in that '46 Series and how Ol' Teddy Ballgame never got to another one.  
• Ditto for Stan Musial.
• Interviews with Bob Gibson and Carl Yastrzemski.
• Personal reminiscences from everybody's favorite announcer, Tim McCarver, who batted .125 with 2 RBIs in the '67 Series.
• A complete and total overdose of Neil Diamond and "Sweet Caroline".

I would also hope that MLB and Fox might work in some feature about '67 Cardinals star Curt Flood, and how his efforts sowed the seeds for the multi-million dollar salaries being earned by the players participating in this year's World Series, but I won't hold my breath waiting for that.

My call - the Cardinals in six games.  Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina to be the stars in the Cardinals' Series win.   

And, hey, wouldn't a Gibson-pitching-to-McCarver be a great First Pitch for one of the games in St. Louis?  We can only hope that the punjabs in the offices of Bud "Bud" Selig are working out the logistics that will  make that happen as we speak.

Enjoy.

Post-Vacation Ramblings

The world doesn't stop just because I go on vacation, so let's clean out the Mental In-Box, Post-Vacation Edition....

• The Sandusky Verdict.  I know that last fall I said that I was not going to write any further on the topic of Jerry Sandusky, but the recently concluded trial brought the stench of this guy and his crimes back in the spotlight.  No, I was not in the courtroom, and no, I did not hear every piece of evidence presented, and, yes, I strongly believe in the concept of "beyond a reasonable doubt".  That said, there is no doubt in my mind that the Centre County jury delivered a just verdict late Friday night, and I am quite comfortable in the knowledge that Jerry Sandusky will never see light outside of prison walls again.
• Also, on trial, of course, is the culture of Big Time Sports at Penn State, a culture that allowed Jerry Sandusky to remain on campus, even after he was no longer employed there, and a culture that has turned Mike McQueery, the one guy who we seem to know did what he was supposed to do in the course of events, into a pariah in the local community, and who is probably pretty much unemployable in his chosen profession. 
• Before you point it out to me, I am under no illusions that this same culture exist at just about every other University that competes in Big Time College Athletics. 
• Those whose biggest priority is the preservation of the Legacy of Joe Paterno, should probably be thankful that the old coach has left this mortal coil.  The mess is only now beginning at PSU as civil suits and other allegations will begin to surface.  There is no way that Paterno (a decent man who in one of his last statements said that he "should have done more") would have survived the rot that will be revealed in the months ahead and kept his skirts clean.  Should 1,000 good acts be wiped away by a single bad act?  Not for me to judge, but, like it or not, Joe's "I-turned-it-over-to-my-boss" actions will be as much a part of his legacy as the Library, the undefeated seasons, and the 400+ wins.
• And this probably really will be the last thing I write on this topic.

On to more pleasant things....

• Is it too soon to start beating the MVP drums for Andrew McCutchen?
• Very exciting US Open last week with Webb Simpson emerging as champion.  Loved that it was on the west coast which enabled us to see it all in prime time while at the beach.
• Speaking of the Open, I enjoyed the telecast, but a word about NBC's sacred cow announcer Johnny Miller.  No one ever criticizes Miller because he "tells it like it is" and calls out golfers who "choke" down there on the course, but on Saturday, he said one of the most asinine things I've ever heard on any sports telecast.  After a Tiger Woods shot from the rough went astray, Miller said that he "could hear from the sound of the club striking the ball that Tiger hit that shot a groove off" on the club face.  Everybody loves to dump on Tim McCarver as a broadcaster, but on his worst days, Timmy never said something as ridiculous as that.
• Speaking of sports, the All-England Tennis Championship begins at Wimbledon in London this week.  After a lot of studying and reviewing hours of video, I am going to go out on a limb and say that Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokavic will meet in the Men's Singles Final at the conclusion of the Fortnight.
• Also, there will be no American Men left after the round of sixteen, if not sooner.
• The Miami Heat win the NBA title, just as I predicted, although in a shorter period of time than I thought. Any doubt who the best basketball player alive is right now?
• It was suggested by Colin Dunlap in The Fan a few weeks ago that the Pirates may have been at a crossroads in their season on the night that Justin Verlander punched them in the mouth with that near no-hitter in Detroit on May 18.  They could have folded it all in then, but instead they have now won seven of the nine series they have played since that one in Detroit, including the one that ends today with none other than Justin Verlander as their mound opponent.
• They are now a season high six games over .500, one game out of first place, and sitting in the second wild card spot (albeit by percentage points).
• I was going to wait until August 1 to start looking at the Wild Card standings, but what the hell!

I've probably left out some more things, but I don't think I've yet recovered from my middle of the night drive home form North Carolina.  There will be more to come in the days ahead, I'm sure.

"Oh, Baby, I Love It"

If you have attended meetings of the Pittsburgh SABR Chapter, you may be aware that it has become kind of a standing joke that a book that ALWAYS seems to be on the book exchange table is "Oh, Baby, I Love It" by that renowned lightning rod for criticism, Tim McCarver. Greg Crouse of the Cleveland Chapter and I have exchanged this book at least three different times over the years.

Well, after picking this book up, again, at the Cleveland meeting last month, I decided that I would actually read the thing. The book was written in 1987 while McCarver was a broadcaster with the Mets (and the Mets were coming off a World Series win), so it is now, 25 years later, an historical period piece, but it isn't all that bad. If nothing else, you can read great stories about Bob Gibson, one of my own all-time favorites, and Steve Carlton. He also raves about Dwight Gooden, at that point a three year major leaguer, and mentions how it appeared that Doc was headed towards being one of the all-time greats. Tim obviously had no crystal ball regarding the road that Gooden was destined to head down.

The last 55 pages of the book are devoted to the Mets championship season of 1986, and I admit that I pretty much skimmed over that section, but I found it interesting that he devoted slightly less than one full page to the well remembered Game Six, and the famous Mookie Wilson to Bill Buckner ground ball gets two sentences. Now, of course, the legions of McCarver Haters out there will no doubt rake him over the coals for not giving this play pages and pages of flowery George Will-type prose, but keep in mind that this was written in the months just after that game was played. I find it interesting how the prism of history may have elevated the memory of this game to a level that a contemporary account did not foresee.

I also found it interesting, as I always do in such books, when McCarver talks about how a player reacts and feels when his career is over. Tim had prepared himself for a post-playing career, but so many players do not. Kind of sad, really.

As baseball books go, this one will never make you forget "Eight Men Out", "The Glory of Their Times", or "Ball Four", but you could do worse in the baseball literary field. "Oh, Baby, I Love It" will be on the Book Exchange Table at our SABR meeting on April 28. Drop by and it's yours for the taking!

Cardinals 3 - Rangers 2...Game One Reactions

Well, that was a dandy of a game last night to open the World Series. None of those high scoring extravaganzas that closed out both LCS's, but some great pitching by both teams and very timely hitting on the part of the victorious Cardinals.

I was watching the game on TV, of course, but in the company of many friends out there in the Facebook and Twitter worlds. I don't want to go all geeky on you, but it's kind of a neat experience, I have to say. Much of the talk centered on the Fox broadcasters and how much everyone seems to hate them. Tim McCarver seems to be a bigger lightning rod for anger and hatred that Barack Obama and John Boehner combined. I remain in the distinct minority of those in the audience who actually like McCarver on the broadcasts. Am I the only one??

I will also take the two man tandem of Joe Buck and McCarver over the three-in-a-booth circus that TBS inflicted on us in the playoffs and that ESPN went with all season long. I also recall watching the the rebroadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series last year and having solo announcers, Bob Prince and Mel Allen, split the announcing duties. One guy doing the telecast in the booth. Can you imagine such a concept. I am betting that if some network tried it today, it would be a huge hit. Of course, they would first have to find someone as good as Mel Allen, which might prove more difficult that the Pirates finding a decent catcher for 2012.

Of course, the big talk was about the Adrian Beltre did-the-ball-hit-his-foot-or-not call in the ninth inning. I did not listen to Mike & Mike today, but I am guessing that Mike Greenberg was probably weeping over the need to install instant replay in baseball RIGHT NOW. I say NO to this idea, and here's why. IF you had replay challenges, and IF you applied the same football logic to the baseball system, the replays last night did not provide "indisputable video proof" to allow the call on the field to be overturned. Not to my eye anyway. I am not sure if the umpire consulted with his colleagues - I think he did - to confer and get the call right, as they say, but that should be as far as it goes. Now, did the ball hit Beltre in the foot? It probably did, because it doesn't seem likely that Beltre could have come up with a fake act as quickly as he did, but, hey, to apply a golf metaphor here, that's just the rub of the green. Plays like this happen all the time in baseball. If this happens in a Royals-Mariners game in September, or, say, in the 19th inning of a Pirates-Braves game in July, no one notices. Well, they did notice that Pirates-Braves snafu, but you get my point. Too bad for the Rangers that this happened in Game One of the World Series, but that, as they say, is baseball, and they have as many as six games left to even things out.

And, hey, wouldn't it have been great if Jerry Meals was the home plate ump last night?

TEASER: The Grandstander and Mrs. Grandstander have a special viewing experience lined up for viewing Game Three of the Series. No, we will not be in Arlington sitting with Nolan Ryan and George Bush, but it might be something even better. I will provide a full report for you later in the weekend.