For many October’s the voice of Tim McCarver was a staple of baseball’s postseason and the World Series. A voice as synonymous with baseball as some of the legends he both played with, played against, and called their games for, Tim McCarver passed away Thursday. He was 81.
McCarver had a 21-year MLB career, spent mostly with the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies with pit-stops in Boston and Montreal. He was a two-time All-Star (1966 and 1967) and two-time World Series Champion (1964 and 1967) with the St. Louis Cardinals. He was a lifetime .271 hitter with 97 career home runs and 654 runs batted in.
He was also the NL MVP runner-up to Orlando Cepeda in 1967 as well.
However it was McCarver’s work in the broadcast booth that more recent generations of baseball fans remember. He began his broadcast career in 1980 with NBC, before moving to ABC to do back-up games on Monday Night Baseball with Don Drysdale. In 1985 he moved into the A-team booth with Al Michaels and Jim Palmer. Also in 1985 he called his first World Series and would be the color man on the World Series every year until his retirement in 2013.
On the national stage he got to work alongside Michaels, Jack Buck on CBS and eventually Jack’s son, Joe Buck beginning in 1996 on FOX. It was the tandem of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver on FOX that became the voice of this current generation of baseball fans every year from the Fox Saturday Game of the Week, to the All Star Game and finally the World Series every year.
McCarver had a strong New York presence. He was worked alongside Ralph Kiner, Fran Healey, Gary Thorne, and Howie Rose on Mets television broadcasts from 1983 to 1998. He would then move to the Bronx to call Yankees games with Bobby Mercer, and sometimes Ken Singleton and Susan Waldman from 1999 to 2001 on Fox 5.
He was easily one of the most heard voices of the Yankees championship runs of the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
McCarver called his last World Series in 2013 on Fox with Joe Buck when the Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in six games.
