Tim McCarver Hall of Fame Broadcaster

When he was much younger, Tim McCarver undoubtedly thought that his path to the Hall of Fame would revolve around his catching and hitting ability, not his gift of gab and verbal insights into the game.

But life is full of surprises and the man who was an excellent catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and other teams for 21 seasons, if not Hall of Fame caliber, ended up becoming more prominent as a baseball broadcaster than a baseball player. Somewhat overshadowed by the recent announcements of the Golden Era Veterans Committee that it had selected former Chicago Cubs third baseman Ron Santo for induction, and the Baseball Writers Association of America that it had chosen former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin for the 2012 Hall of Fame class was the declaration that McCarver was named recipient of the Ford Frick Award.

McCarver has been an enjoyable listen. He is witty behind the microphone and his analysis is generally forthright and intelligent.  Since his long career as a catcher ended, McCarver has been a broadcaster for more than 30 years. All told he has been around the majors for more than a half century. McCarver, who turned 70 in October, and who first broadcast a World Series in 1985, has done baseball on the air for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. Just about every available network besides the Cartoon Channel. McCarver actually got his start in the broadcast world on a Philadelphia television station, not by jumping instantly to a network.

For those too young to know or remember, McCarver was a solid player. He was a field leader behind the plate, was highly regarded as a handler of pitchers, and had his moments as a hitter. His lifetime average was .271, though he was not a feared power hitter. Only three times did McCarver smack more than 10 home runs in a season with a career high of 14 in 1967 with the St. Louis Cardinals. One season, 1966, he somehow led the National League in triples with 13, however. Catchers, generally considered as slow moving as glaciers, do not lead leagues in triples.

Most of McCarver’s renown revolved around his playing days with St. Louis, the team he broke in with in 1959 (eight games), as a 17-year-old, a self-described naive southern boy out of Memphis who gained in maturity hanging around men like power pitcher Bob Gibson, who had an education to offer in race relations.

McCarver’s playing heyday coincided with the Cardinals’ great successes of the 1960s, the teams that won National League pennants in 1964, 1967 and 1968. In the latter stages of his playing days, McCarver had cameos with the Montreal Expos and the Boston Red Sox, but spent a few productive years with the Philadelphia Phillies. During his final season in the big leagues, McCarver got into just a half dozen games with the Phillies world champions of 1980.

That was the time period when Steve Carlton was a premier pitcher, but refused to talk to the press. If McCarver caught the game, he was asked to interpret Carlton’s showing. As a sports writer in Philadelphia at the time, I was the beneficiary of that post-game analysis as the mute Carlton ducked into the off-limits trainer’s room. It proved to be good training for McCarver becoming an on-air baseball analyst. He has been talking for a living ever since and it has worked out well for him, you could say.

The Frick honor is the highest any baseball broadcaster can receive and McCarver’s excellence shining through over the decades makes it an award well-deserved.