As much as I’ve criticized Tim McCarver on this site, there is no doubt of his contributions to baseball and to the broadcast booth. And while 2013 marked his final year on Fox and his final World Series, there’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll see him back on TV in 2014 whether it’s with MLB Network or TBS.
Yes, McCarver was verbose or sometimes too obvious, but you could tell there was genuine regard from Joe Buck, especially when they signed off for the last time on Wednesday.
Before this video, McCarver, in a taped piece, gave his recollections as both a player and a broadcaster on the Fall Classic and a nice move by Fox to get NBC’s Al Michaels to talk about Tim. McCarver worked his first Fall Classic as a broadcaster with Michaels and Jim Palmer on ABC as the Kansas City Royals took on the St. Louis Cardinals in 1985.
You can see the friendship between Buck and McCarver in this video.
If you had “Ditto” as McCarver’s final word, you win. Unfortunately, you win nothing.
Some nice symmetry for McCarver as he ends this phase of his career. He played in three World Series with the Cardinals. His first World Series as a broadcaster involved the Cardinals. And the last World Series he worked for Fox also involved the Redbirds.
In addition, McCarver played for the Red Sox in 1975, although he was traded before he got a chance to play in that year’s World Series. The word was that manager Darrell Johnson thought McCarver was undermining him and gunning for his job so Johnson had him traded.
In any event, a nice tribute by Fox.
