Tim McCarver, former Mets broadcaster, dies at 81

It was the sportscasting equivalent of a walk-off hit in Game 7 of the World Series — and it happened seconds before a walk-off hit in Game 7 of the World Series.

Tim McCarver, who the Baseball Hall of Fame announced died Thursday of heart failure in Memphis at age 81, had long, memorable runs as both a player and announcer in the major leagues, but all of it was tidily illustrated in a single moment that night, when he made the greatest first guess in baseball announcing history.

Given the stakes, how could it be topped?

It was Nov. 4, 2001, and the visiting, three-time defending champion Yankees were tied 2-2 with the Diamondbacks, bases loaded, one out, infield in and Luis Gonzalez at the plate.

After Gonzalez fouled off the first pitch from Mariano Rivera, McCarver said this on Fox:

"One problem is Rivera throws inside to lefthanders. Lefthanders get a lot of broken-bat hits into shallow outfield — the shallow part of the outfield. That's the danger of bringing the infield in with a guy like Rivera on the mound."

Seconds later, Rivera threw inside to Gonzalez, who hit a broken-bat single to the shallow part of the outfield, a ball shortstop Derek Jeter likely would have caught from his normal position.

The Diamondbacks were world champions. The Yankees' dynasty was over.

“I turned to him, I think, before the ball landed and I just mouthed the word, 'Wow,’ ” McCarver’s play-by-play partner, Joe Buck, said in 2013.

Buck and McCarver did not speak for 3 1/2 minutes as the D-backs celebrated, but the two shared a quiet high-five. "That's as good as it gets," Buck said, looking back.

For decades, McCarver was as good as it got in baseball announcing. His work was as revolutionary as John Madden’s was for football.

Before McCarver, analysts tended to play it straight in describing action and rarely questioned managers’ strategy.

McCarver did it early and often, annoying teams and sometimes challenging the patience of viewers with his minute analysis and repetition of points.

But in the process, he taught fans nuances that previously had gone unnoticed by the public but did not escape the attention of a man who was a major-league catcher from 1959-80.

“We are saddened to learn of the passing today of Tim McCarver, who for 16 years in the television booth gave Mets fans an insightful, humorous and knowledgeable behind the scenes look into the game of baseball," the Mets said in a statement. "Tim drew on his 21-year career as a catcher to give viewers a unique opinion on what went on between the lines. We send our condolences to his daughters, Kathy and Kelley, and the rest of the McCarver family.”

After a long run calling Mets games and a shorter one on the Yankees, he focused on national TV, working a record 24 World Series as an analyst through 2013.

While the Gonzalez first guess was the pinnacle of McCarver’s career, he made a habit of anticipating plays for decades.

"I think that comes from being a catcher,” Buck said in 2013, “trying to anticipate, 'OK, how'd we get this guy out before? Where is the defense playing? How are we going to try to pitch that guy?' "

“Tim McCarver was an All-Star, a World Series Champion, a respected teammate, and one of the most influential voices our game has known," commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. "As a player, Tim was a key part of great Cardinals and Phillies teams in his 21-year career. In the booth, his analysis and attention to detail brought fans closer to our game and how it is played and managed. Tim’s approach enhanced the fan experience on our biggest stages and on the broadcasts of the Mets, the Yankees and the Cardinals.
“All of us at Major League Baseball are grateful for Tim’s impact on sports broadcasting and his distinguished career in our National Pastime. I extend my deepest condolences to Tim’s family, friends and the generations of fans who learned about our great game from him.”

Long, impactful career

McCarver was born on Oct. 16, 1941, in Memphis, a city with which he was so closely associated that its former minor-league ballpark was named for him. He never lost the Southern accent and folksy style he acquired there.

He played for the Cardinals, Phillies, Expos and Red Sox, was an All-Star in 1966 and ’67 and won World Series with the Cardinals in 1964 and ’67. (The Yankees tried to sign him at age 17, but St. Louis outbid them.)

In Game 5 of the 1964 World Series against the Yankees, his three-run home run in the 10th inning at Yankee Stadium gave the Cardinals a 3-2 series lead en route to a seven-game triumph.

He scored the winning run in the 10th inning of the 1966 All-Star Game on a single by Maury Wills. In ’67, he caught Tom Seaver for the only time in his career as the rookie pitched the 15th inning to get the save for the National League.

McCarver caught two no-hitters — by Rick Wise of the Phillies in 1971 and Bill Stoneman of the Expos in ’72.

He began his broadcasting career in Philadelphia and did national work for NBC, ABC and CBS before joining Fox in 1996.

For New York fans, his most memorable run was calling Mets games from 1983 to ’98, an era in which he honed his TV skills and brought out the best in his partner, Ralph Kiner, an original Mets broadcaster.

One example of the lessons McCarver taught viewers: That a shortstop signals to the second baseman about who will cover second base by placing a glove to his face and either opening or closing his mouth.

McCarver eventually ran afoul of the Mets for his sharp commentary and moved to Yankees games from 1999 to 2001, which helped him gain insight into Rivera and his inside cutters pitches to lefties.

After leaving Fox, McCarver called Cardinals games locally part-time from 2014 through 2019. He did not work in 2020 and ’21 to avoid exposing himself to the COVID-19 virus and announced his retirement from broadcasting in April 2022.

Critical opinions

McCarver frequently ruffled feathers. After he criticized Deion Sanders during the 1992 NLCS for playing both football and baseball on the same day, Sanders thrice dumped buckets of water on McCarver’s head while he was covering Atlanta’s clubhouse celebration for CBS.

Some criticism was easier to take than Sanders’, given the source. In Baltimore in 1993, Ted Williams confronted McCarver at their hotel with a long lecture about hitting after disputing something McCarver had said on the air.

“It was a sobering moment," McCarver said, laughing, in 2013. "I had to just stand there and take it."

Rivera and McCarver both left the national baseball stage after the 2013 season.

"They have done completely different lines of work, but they've done it where they've poured everything they had into it and done it in a classy way," Buck said then of McCarver and Rivera. "The moment never was bigger than them and yet they're always respectful of the game.

"I don't know anybody who loves this game more than Tim. I don't know anyone who loves more what this game brings, the intricacies of it, the strategy, the nuances of it."

Before calling his final All-Star Game, at Citi Field in 2013, McCarver said he tried to keep in mind a piece of advice Madden often shared with colleagues: Stay contemporary.

"It's foolish to say that the game keeps you perpetually young, because I'm not perpetually young," McCarver said. "But the game has a way of keeping you younger than you would feel if you were in some other business, I think."

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.