McCarver the Perfect Announcer to Talk About All-Stars’ Hits

One of the distinguishing things about Tim McCarver is that he played major league baseball in four decades.

He broke in with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1959, played with several teams through the ‘60s and ‘70s and played briefly for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980.

Something that may not be quite as well known about McCarver is that nobody has a better All-Star batting average.

And nobody ever will. You can’t do any better than 1.000.

OK, McCarver played in only two All-Star games and batted only three times.

But he scored the winning run in the 10th inning of the 1966 game in St. Louis coming in from second on a single by Maury Wills.

And the next year, at Anaheim, McCarver had a single and double in two at-bats.

Tony Perez had the big hit that year, homering in the 15th inning to give the National League a 2-1 victory in a game in which there were 30 strikeouts.

McCarver, in town the other day for a CBS affiliates’ meeting, sat poolside at the Century Plaza Hotel and talked about his All-Star memories.

McCarver and Jack Buck will announce Tuesday’s game in Chicago for CBS.

“I have two memories about the ’66 game,” McCarver said. “One was the heat. I think it was 116 degrees on the field.

“I remember Augie Busch said of his new ballpark, ‘Well, at least this place will hold the heat.’

“The other thing was Sandy Koufax and his capsolin. Pitchers used to mix up some of this stuff and put it on a sore spot on their arm. It only took a little. The stuff burned like hell.

“Well, Sandy used it full strength and put it over his entire left arm. I don’t know how he could stand it. One thing that told me, he was really hurting. You know, that was the year he quit.”

A vivid memory for McCarver at the game in Anaheim, also played in broiling weather, was the heat thrown by a rookie from Fresno and USC, Tom Seaver.

“I caught him for an inning and was amazed at how hard he threw,” McCarver said.

McCarver said he had put some sponge under a golf glove, some more sponge on top of the golf glove, and his mitt was on top of all that. It didn’t help.

“This bone here,” he said, pointing below his index finger, “was killing me for three days after that.”

Was Seaver the hardest thrower he’d ever caught?

“Oh, no,” McCarver said. “(Bob) Gibson was the hardest.”

Things have worked out pretty well for McCarver. When ABC, McCarver’s previous employer, lost baseball, CBS picked him up almost immediately.

He was first assigned to work with Brent Musburger, then Buck, although Al Michaels, his partner at ABC, was rumored to be headed his way until ABC and Michaels settled their feud.

McCarver said all that instability didn’t bother him, that he’s just glad to be where he is. And he’s working with an old friend.

Buck was announcing the Cardinals when McCarver played for them.

Buck has recalled that in those days, he had thought McCarver would eventually get into managing.

McCarver thought so, too. And he’s had a couple of offers.

He said the Montreal Expos talked to him in 1984 and the Minnesota Twins in 1987, before hiring Tom Kelly and going on to a World Series championship.

McCarver, 48, said he no longer is interested in managing.

“I’ve put too much effort into broadcasting to give it up now,” he said.

McCarver is also a television announcer for the Mets.

Jim Kaat, the other CBS baseball commentator, stopped by, and Nolan Ryan’s name came up.

Kaat, 51, was in the major leagues for 25 seasons, a record for pitchers. But he marvels at Ryan, who is still pitching no-hitters at 43.

“The thing is, he’s pitched better overall the past two seasons than he did the previous 20,” Kaat said.

How can Ryan keep throwing fastballs year after year and not blow out his arm?

“Well, for one thing, it’s genetics,” Kaat said. “Another thing, he has an ideal motion. And maybe the most important thing is his leg strength. With his motion, he really uses his legs. That’s his secret.”

Johnny Bench, who will work the All-Star game for CBS radio with play-by-play announcer John Rooney, doesn’t have an All-Star batting average of 1.000.

But his .357 isn’t too shabby. Bench played in 14 All-Star games, and had 10 hits in 28 at-bats.

He was the National League’s starting catcher 10 times, and the National won nine of those games.

Bench, on the phone from Cincinnati, talked about some of his memories.

“What comes to mind is the first one I played in, in 1968,” he said. “I was a rookie and there I was in the same locker room with guys like McCovey, Mays, Cepeda and Gibson.

“And Willie Mays came over to me and said, ‘You should have been the starting catcher.’

“Here I was, just a rookie, and Willie Mays was saying that to me. That’s something I’ll never forget.”

Jerry Grote of the Mets was the National League’s starting catcher that year.

Add Bench: He’s the host of a trivia series on ESPN, “The Rolaids Great American Baseball Quiz.”

The third show in the series, which focuses on All-Star trivia, will be televised next Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. and repeated July 13 at 7 a.m. and July 17 at 12:30 p.m.

Bench, too, is a trivia buff.

“I’m nothing like Norman Bear, our CBS producer, who’s a real whiz, but I remember quite a bit,” Bench said. “Just don’t ask me my own stats. I may remember my home run totals, but nothing else.”

TV-Radio Notes

This weekend, you can have breakfast at Wimbledon, as NBC likes to say, and lunch in Rome. NBC’s tape-delayed Wimbledon coverage begins at 8 a.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday. The World Cup coverage on TNT and Channel 34 begins at 11 a.m. both days. The third-place game is Saturday, the title game Sunday. . . . NBC said early this week it would not bid on the 1994 World Cup, and ABC said Thursday it might be interested in selected games but not the entire tournament.

Vin Scully came up with another marvelous call on Fernando Valenzuela’s no-hitter: “Grab a sombrero and throw it to the sky.” . . . Valenzuela, after going into the locker room to ice his arm, didn’t score any points with ESPN when he refused to return to the field for an interview. But then ESPN commentator Norm Hitzges didn’t score any points with Dodger publicist Jay Lucas when he ripped up his notes and threw them at him in disgust.

Jaime Jarrin, having nearly fully recovered from his serious auto accident in spring training, is scheduled to work CBS radio’s Spanish-language broadcast of the All-Star game, but said he isn’t planning to pick up the Dodgers until they return home July 23. . . . ESPN’s coverage of the U.S. Olympic Festival begins this weekend.

Those who said the addition of Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino to the senior golf tour would make it more popular than the regular PGA Tour appear to be right. The U.S. Senior Open on ABC outdrew the Hartford Open on CBS Sunday in the overnight ratings, 5.0 to 2.0.

Kevin Kiley, ESPN’s top college football commentator for four years, has been hired by Turner Broadcasting as a pregame NFL analyst. . . . The pay-per-view One-on-One Challenge was bought by only about 100,000 households, meaning it had less than a 1% buy rate. But promoters weren’t expecting much more than that, and it was a good show.

Chip Engelland, former Pacific Palisades High star who played at Duke, will be among those playing in the World Basketball League All-Star game on SportsChannel next Wednesday at 6 p.m. Engelland will also be one of the competitors in a three-point shooting contest. . . . Prime Ticket, by sharing programming with other regional sports networks, will be able to televise at least 83 college football games this season, 33 of them live.