ABC Puts a Catcher in Place of a Hitter for the World Series

Tim McCarver is one of seven major leaguers to have played in four decades, and he’s the only catcher to have done so.

Now, he has another distinction. He is replacing Howard Cosell in the World Series broadcast booth. ABC’s decision to use McCarver instead of Cosell on the Series has generally been well received.

It could be argued that Cosell was a good football announcer. Certainly, his unusual, bold style drew attention to “Monday Night Football.” He offered a different perspective and solid journalistic reporting.

But Cosell, never much of a baseball announcer, was not in the same league with such people as NBC’s Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola. Cosell, for one thing, didn’t have the advantage of being around the game as much as other network baseball announcers. By comparison, he had little to offer.

Nevertheless, ABC would insist on force-feeding Cosell to the public whenever it televised the playoffs or World Series. Not until Cosell took some shots at colleagues in a book did the network finally decide not to use him as a commentator on the World Series.

McCarver, the commentator on ABC’s B team with Don Drysdale, happened to be in the right place at the right time.

“I got a call from my agent last week about 10 minutes after the decision was made,” McCarver said from his home in Philadelphia. “My immediate reaction was fear. But I’ve settled down.

“I just feel fortunate to get this kind of assignment. Not so much because of the exposure I’ll get but because I’ll still be working baseball in late October.”

McCarver played in the major leagues for 22 years, beginning in 1959 with St. Louis. He was traded to Philadelphia in 1970, went to Montreal for part of the 1972 season, spent two seasons back with St. Louis, then two seasons with Boston before signing as a free agent with Philadelphia in 1975.

He retired after the 1979 season and became a broadcaster for the Phillies. In September 1980, however, he returned as a player so he could say he had played in four decades. He got one hit in five at-bats and finished his career with a .271 average.

He spent two more seasons with the Phillies as a broadcaster before moving on to the Mets, working with Ralph Kiner and Steve Zabriskie on WOR telecasts.

Now he’ll be working with Al Michaels and Jim Palmer on the World Series.

Catching on: McCarver is one of a number of catchers who have successfully made the transition from the playing field to broadcast booth. Garagiola, Johnny Bench, who did a fine job on the Dodger-St. Louis series for CBS Radio, and Milwaukee Brewer announcer Bob Uecker are three others.

“I think a lot has to do with the position,” McCarver said. “Except that the press box is about a story and a half higher, we view baseball essentially the same way as a broadcaster as we did as a player. Our thoughts are the same, and we just sort of blurt them out. And most catchers, for some reason, seem to be pretty loquacious.”

Touch of class: Though there is fierce competition between the networks, NBC flashed the following graphic on the screen toward the end of Wednesday night’s Kansas City-Toronto game: “Good luck to ABC on the World Series, and to Al, Jim and Tim.” In turn, Michaels called Mike Weisman, the executive producer of NBC Sports and the man responsible for the graphic, to thank him for the classy gesture.

Complaint dept.: Because both the Rams and Raiders are on the road, Los Angeles viewers will get three NFL games on television Sunday--the Rams at Kansas City on CBS at 10, the Raiders at Cleveland on NBC at 10 and Seattle at Denver on NBC at 1.

Last Sunday, because the Raiders were at home, the L.A. market was limited to two telecasts. And because CBS was required to show the Ram game at Tampa Bay, Los Angeles did not get the CBS telecast of the Chicago Bear-San Francisco 49er game.

The NFL’s antiquated thinking is that if a network is limited to showing only one game in a market where a live game is taking place, attendance at the live game will be higher.

Perhaps this rule will be scrapped when the networks negotiate a new contract with the NFL, to go into effect in 1987. It’s a bad rule. Viewers in a two-team market such as Los Angeles really get shortchanged.

Recommended viewing: “The Babe,” a Broadway play about Babe Ruth, has been made into a television show that will be shown at 6 p.m. tonight on ESPN. The 90-minute show, a one-man performance starring Max Gail, is divided into three scenes-- depicting Babe Ruth in 1923 at the height of his popularity, in 1935 at the conclusion of his career, and in 1948, shortly before his death.

Gail, who played Wojo on the “Barney Miller” series, is a believable Babe.

Notes The big college game on TV Saturday is No. 1 Iowa against No. 2 Michigan on CBS at 12:30 p.m. It’s the second game of a CBS doubleheader. Purdue will play Ohio State at 9 a.m. in the opener. . . . ABC, which deprived the nation of seeing Oklahoma-Texas last Saturday by showing Alabama-Penn State, will televise Oklahoma and Texas this Saturday, but not against each other. The Sooners’ 12:30 game against Miami of Florida will be shown in half the country, including Los Angeles. The other half will get Texas-Arkansas.

UCLA, playing its seventh game of the season Saturday, will make its sixth television appearance. Channel 4 will show the Bruin game against Washington State at Pullman, Wash., at 1 p.m. The announcers on the Lorimar Productions telecast will be Barry Tompkins and Kermit Alexander. . . . The Bruins will be back on television again on Oct. 26, when WTBS will televise the Cal game from the Rose Bowl. Because of the telecast, the kickoff has been changed to 5 p.m. . . . Other college football set for a week from Saturday--Ohio State at Minnesota on CBS at 12:30, Nebraska vs. Colorado or Penn State vs. West Virginia on ABC at 12:30, Georgia Tech at Tennessee on ESPN at 4:30 and Houston at Arkansas on USA at 10 a.m. . . . On Nov. 2, CBS will televise Iowa at Ohio State. . . . Todd Hart, the Cal State Long Beach player paralyzed in a 1982 game against UCLA, will be featured on “Race for No. 1” on Channel 7 at 4 p.m. Saturday. Hart is now able to drive a car and ride a bike.

Prime Ticket Network, Jerry Buss’ all-sports cable channel, will make its debut Saturday night with the Boston Celtic-Laker exhibition game at the Forum at 7:30. Laker telecasts on the channel will be simulcasts of the KLAC radio broadcasts, with announcers Chick Hearn and Keith Erickson. Geoff Witcher will host a 15-minute show before each Laker telecast. . . . Cable systems carrying the service include Group W, Falcon, Valley Cable, and United. The channel varies with each system affiliate. . . . ON-TV and SelecTV will carry some of the Prime Ticket telecasts, including Saturday night’s basketball game. . . . Sunday night’s hockey game between the Kings and the Edmonton Oilers at the Forum will also be televised by Prime Ticket. King telecasts also will be simulcasts, with announcers Bob Miller and Nick Nickson. Rich Marotta will be the host for the 15-minute pregame shows. . . . Sunday night’s game will not be carried by ON and Select.

The national ratings for the baseball playoffs on NBC, only fair at the start, picked up considerably toward the end. Tuesday night’s prime-time rating was 20.9, bringing the average for the first seven prime-time telecasts up to 17.4. Although Wednesday night’s national rating was not available Thursday, the overnight ratings for the six major markets averaged out to a 20.0. The five prime-time playoff telecasts on ABC last year drew an average rating of 17.3. . . . Wednesday’s Dodger-St. Louis game drew an L.A. rating of 19.6, while the Kansas City-Toronto game, benefiting from the later start, drew an L.A. rating of 23.0. . . . The announcers for CBS Radio’s coverage of the World Series on KNX (1070) will be Jack Buck and Sparky Anderson. CBS is also providing coverage in Spanish. KTNQ (1020) will carry those broadcasts.

Channel 34, via the Spanish International Network, will televise winter baseball from Puerto Rico, beginning Oct. 27. There will be 10 regular-season games televised on Sundays (tape-delayed at 1:30 p.m.), plus coverage of the all-star game Saturday, Dec. 14, selected playoff games and the entire championship series. . . . Tonight’s USC-UCLA women’s volleyball match at Pauley Pavilion at 7:30 will be broadcast by radio station KGIL (1260), with Randy Rosenbloom and Mike Sondheimer the announcers. The match will also be televised on a tape-delayed basis by Group W cable systems on Channel 10 on Saturday at 4 p.m. and repeated Monday at 10 p.m.