Profile of Tim McCarver on Famous Like Me

James Timothy "Tim" McCarver (born October 16, 1941 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American former catcher in Major League Baseball and a current broadcaster. He began his playing career after being signed by the St. Louis Cardinals from Christian Brothers High School in Memphis in 1959. He hit .359 between Keokuk and Rochester after his signing in 1959 and he was briefly called up to the Cardinals although he was just 17 years old at the time.

He spent the 1960, 1961, and 1962 seasons shuttling between St. Louis and the minor leagues in places like Memphis, Charleston, and Atlanta. By 1963, he was with the big club for good.

McCarver's greatest playing success came with the Cardinals. In 1966, he made his first all star team. In 1967, he finished second to teammate Orlando Cepeda for the National League Most Valuable Player award. He was a member of two World Series champions during his time in St. Louis. Additionally, he fostered a relationship with young pitcher Steve Carlton that would keep him in the major leagues later in his career.

After a trade to Philadelphia involving, among others, his teammate Curt Flood (which led to Flood's dramatic lawsuit challenging baseball's reserve clause) before the 1970 season, McCarver began a somewhat nomadic existence playing for the Phillies, Expos, Boston, and another brief stint with the Cardinals.

McCarver finished his career as the personal catcher for Steve Carlton for the Phllies in the late 1970s, which prompted some critics to remark that he is most known for "holding Carlton's jock strap". He retired after the 1979 season to begin a broadcasting career. McCarver briefly returned to duty in September 1980 so he could play in four different decades.

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.

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, however he is frequenetly criticized for is apparent open bias towards the New York Yankees. Following the 2003 ALCS and 2004 ALCS these charges appeared in not only in the Boston Globe, and ESPN columns, but also across Red Sox Nation message boards and sports radio. Ironically, McCarver apppeared in the Red Sox themed movie Fever Pitch. McCarver has come under similar heat for his commentary during the 2005 Angels/Yankees divisional series.

McCarver has not been above controversy. During the 1992 National League Championship Series, he criticized Deion Sanders for playing both football and baseball on the same day. For his criticism, Sanders dumped a bucket of water on McCarver while he was covering the National League pennant winning Atlanta Braves' clubhouse celebration for CBS. In 2004, he was criticized by Roger Clemens over the rehashing of a bat throwing incident four years earlier.

He is currently paired with Joe Buck on the Fox network's MLB telecasts, after previous stints with ABC (where he teamed with Al Michaels and Jim Palmer) and CBS (where he teamed with Jack Buck from 1990-1991 and Sean McDonough from 1992-1993). He has also called games locally for the Phillies, Mets, Yankees, and Giants. Tim McCarver also co-hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics with Paula Zahn for CBS. Some refer to him as "Chevrolet's Tim McCarver" in reference to the sponsor of his cable sports talk show.

Memorable Moments

McCarver has been on hand for some of baseball's most memorable and exciting moments in the later part of the 20th Century and even beyond that. Noteworthy moments that Tim McCarver was present for while broadcasting include:

• San Diego Padre Steve Garvey's dramatic game winning home run of Lee Smith of the Chicago Cubs in Game 4 of the 1984 National League Championship Series. The Padres, who came back from a 2-0 deficit in the best of five NLCS, went on the win their first ever pennant the following day.
• The infamous sixth game of the 1985 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals. That particular World Series was most notable for first base umpire Don Denkinger's blown call (which helped elevate the Royals' dramatic come from behind victory) in Game 6.
• The exhausting, 16-inning long, sixth game of the 1986 National League Championship Series (for which McCarver called with Keith Jackson for ABC) between the New York Mets and Houston Astros.
• The 1987 Minnesota Twins, who went 85-77 in the regular season (they only won 29 games on the road) beating the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games (all of them won by the home team) in the World Series.
• The Los Angeles Dodgers beating the heavily favored New York Mets, who went 11-1 against the Dodgers in the regular season, in seven games in the 1988 NLCS.
• The unforgettable 1991 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves (both went from "worst to first" in a one year span) which is considered by many to being the greatest World Series of all-time.
• Little-used Atlanta Braves player Francisco Cabrera's game winning base hit off of Pittsburgh Pirate Stan Belinda in the bottom of the ninth of the seventh game of the 1992 NLCS.
• Joe Carter's game winning home run off of Philadelphia Phillie Mitch Williams in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series that clinched the Toronto Blue Jays second connectutive World Title.
• The beginning of the New York Yankees's return to power as they came back from a 2-0 deficit against the defending World Champion Atlanta Braves to win the 1996 World Series (the Yankees' first in 15 years).
• Mark McGwire hitting his record breaking 62nd regular season home run in 1998.
• The upstart Arizona Diamondbacks' emotional, come from behind victory against the three time defending World Champion New York Yankees in the bottom of the ninth of the 2001 World Series.
• The long suffering Anaheim Angels finally winning the World Series after defeating the San Francisco Giants (who were just eight outs away from winning their very first World Series since coming to San Francisco in Game 6) in seven games in 2002.
• The heart-stopping 2003 American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox. Game 7 ended with Aaron Boone winning the pennant for the Yankees with an extra inning home run.
• The Cinderella 2003 Florida Marlins beating the New York Yankees in six games in the World Series. The Marlins won the World Series for the second time (their first being in 1997) despite making their Major League debut just ten years earlier.
• The Boston Red Sox avenging their 2003 playoff loss against the New Yankees by coming back from a 3-0 deficit (the first time that something like this has ever happened in Major League Baseball) to win the pennant. The Red Sox proceeded to finally put the so-called Curse of the Bambino to an end by sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals 4 games to 0 in the 2004 World Series.

In 2003, McCarver set a record by broadcasting his 13th World Series on national television (surpassing Curt Gowdy). The first World Series broadcast that McCarver worked on was in 1985 for ABC. McCarver was promoted to the 1985 World Series telecast shortly after ABC fired Howard Cosell in retaliation for Cosell's controversal book I Never Played the Game. Tim McCarver's previous major exposure for ABC Sports was serving as a field reporter during the 1984 National League Championship Series between the San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs. Since 1984, McCarver has to date, never missed commentating on the League Championship Series.

1989 World Series

Perhaps Tim McCarver's most memorable broadcast occurred on October 17, 1989 before Game 3 of the World Series at San Francisco's Candlestick Park. In the pre-game TV segment for ABC, some game footage of Oakland Athletics slugger Dave Parker hitting a double to the wall in right field to drive in José Canseco from Game 2 was being shown. Unbeknownst to the viewing audience just yet, the ground was beginning to shake at 5:04 p.m local time. The picture became staticky, a distracted McCarver, who was assessing the San Francisco Giants' chances for victory in the game, did a verbal double-take, and then McCarver's colleague Al Michaels broke in and said, "I'll tell you what; we're having an earthqu-" just as power went out. Soon, a green ABC Sports graphic replaced the normal pitcure and over a telephone line, Al Michaels tried to make light of the confusing and chaotic situation by jokingly saying "Well folks, that's the greatest open in the history of television - bar none!" ABC was was able to restore the proper audio and video with a backup generator while McCarver, Michaels, and Jim Palmer remained calm.

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