SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
What I remember most about Tim McCarver is that he was an All-Star baseball catcher and was talkative and incisive as a television commentator.
Oh, there’s plenty more, but these were the most things that come to mind after he passed away Thursday at the age of 81. It was announced by baseball’s Hall of Fame — of which he is a member — due to heart failure in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was with his family.
During his 60 years in reporting the National Pastime, he won a pair of World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals and had a long run as one of the country’s most recognized, incisive and talkative commentators.
The son of a Memphis policeman, he was six feet tall and solidly built and got into more than a few fights while growing up but was otherwise playing baseball and football imitating popular broadcasters, notably the Cards’ Harry Caray.
He attended segregated schools in Memphis and often spoke of the education he received as a newcomer in St. Louis. His teammate included Hall of Famer righthander Bob Gibson and outfielder Curt Flood, neither of whom did not hesitate to tease McCarver.
Gibson and Hall of Fame southpaw Steve Carlton were easily the best hurlers he caught. McCarver liked to tell the story about drinking an orange soda during a hot day in spring training and Gibson asked him for some, then laughing when McCarver flinched.
He met Carlton when lefty was a rookie in 1965, and with an independent streak wider than the Grand Canyon. The two initially clashed, even arguing on the mound during games.
But they later became close even and were later reunited in the 70s with the Philadelphia Phillies even though Carlton’s designated catcher had a below average throwing arm and overall didn’t compare defensively to Philly’s regular catcher, Gold Glover Bob Boone.
During his Hall of Fame induction in 1994, Carlton said that McCarver was a very smart catcher and forced him to him to pitch inside, adding that early in his career he reluctant to pitch inside, but that Timmy had a way to remedy this by setting up behind the hitter.
“There was just the umpire there, said Carlton, “and I couldn’t see him (McCarver), so I was forced to pitch inside.”
During a 21-year career, McCarver played briefly for the Montreal Expos and Boston Red Sox. He batted .271 and only struck out more than 40 times in a season.
In the postseason, he averaged .273 and had his best outing in the 1964 World Series. He finished 11 for 23 with five walks and his 3-run home run at Yankee Stadium in the 10th inning of Game 5 brought his team a 4-2 victory.
Behind the mic he won six Emmys, appeared as a punchline on TV family shows and also made some cameos. Many found McCarver informative and entertaining.
In 1992, the same year he criticized Deion Sanders for playing two sports on the same day, the Atlanta Braves’ outfielder/Atlanta Falcons defensive back laughably dumped a bucket of water over McCarver’s head in the clubhouse.
In 1999, McCarver was fired by the New York Mets, and after retiring from Fox Sports, he worked the occasional Cardinals’ games before sitting out the 2020 campaign because of concerns about COVID-19.
Beside the Frank Frick Award, he was inducted into the Cardinals Hall of Fame in 2017.
Quite a career and deserving so.
