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from Oct. 16, 2000 |
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STAN ISAACS Out of Left Field |
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Tim's still one of the greats, but...
maybe he needs to lighten up!
By
STAN ISAACS
for TheColumnists.com
Once upon a time, Tim McCarver, the sports broadcaster, was flying
across country. At one point, when the plane was high above the
clouds in the west, McCarver got his camera and took a picture
out the window. McCarver later showed the picture to friends
and told them what it was: "The International Date Line,"
he said with a chuckle.
That is an example of the zany Tim McCarver who made his mark
with the Mets when he developed into the best baseball analyst
on television. I mention that now because McCarver has too often
degenerated from a whimsical, keen analyst into a kvetch--a
Yiddish word meaning a scold or complainer--on network television.
I wrote a TV sports column in the days when McCarver broke in
as a broadcaster with the Mets in the early '80s. Like most New
York viewers, I was delighted by his humor, his good cheer, his
keen baseball knowledge, respect for language and awareness of
the world beyond the outfield fences.
McCarver, a former player who had a solid 21-year career, playing
for four different teams, taught people inside baseball. He was
the first to inform that when a runner was on first base, the
shortstop or second baseman would indicate with an open or closed-mouth
sign to the other, who was to cover second base if a runner tried
to steal. He was quick to convey the information when outfielders
were playing too deep. With his soft Tennessee lilt, he good-naturedly
admitted when he goofed.
When a pitcher had a no-hitter in progress, McCarver not only
defied the ridiculous superstitious practice of not mentioning
the word,"no-hitter," but he also told viewers to get
on the phone and tell friends what was happening, to let them
in on the drama (and, incidentally, increase viewership).
Bob
Costas, who worked with McCarver early-on, said, "His frame
of reference is greater than most people's. He has a ball player's
perspective and a quirkiness beyond humor with an affinity for
the offbeat that you need in a 162-game sport."
McCarver once talked about an exhibition game when a ball was
hit beyond the fence and swallowed by a pig. He called it an
"inside-the-pork home run." He appreciates and encourages
humor by his partner. "He's the kind of a guy," said
Costas, "who if you get off a good line, will give you a
poke in the ribs."
This is not the McCarver we have been hearing on Fox this post-season
and who will be with us for the rest of the playoffs and the
World Series. The humor and inside baseball is there, but it
is overshadowed by opinions and sermonizing.
Consider some of his comments late in the second game of the
Mets-Cards playoff game on Oct. 12. When the Mets' Tim Perez
tried to bunt and took a called third strike instead, McCarver
stated that Perez had intentionally taken a pitch on a 3-2 count,
"something I have never seen before."
It seemed to this viewer and others that Perez attempted to bunt,
then pulled his bat back when he thought it was ball four, only
to be called out on strikes by the umpire. A replay sent up by
the producer indicated that Perez had done precisely that, yet
McCarver showed a stubborness in sticking with his original analysis.
McCarver has developed the annoying habit of predicting actions
when there is no need for that. In the Mets' ninth, with a runner
on first, McCarver predicted Agbayani would swing away, not bunt,
because he had never bunted in his big league career. McCarver
did not say that Agbayani had tried and failed to bunt only a
week before in the Mets-San Francisco series. And this time McCarver
was wrong because Agbayani did bunt--and successfully.
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When Jay Payton brought home the winning run with a hit to center field, McCarver initially mis-called center fielder Jim Edmonds, "J.D. Drew." When a man makes his own mistake at a key time like that, he should show a little humility about faulting others. But when Edmonds let the ball bounce by him and seemed slow to recover, McCarver was quick to be critical, pointing out a few times that Edmonds was tardy chasing the ball, allowing Payton to reach third base. A replay later showed that Edmonds appeared to have hurt his leg while swinging in a previous at bat, so McCarver admitted that perhaps Edmonds had not been guilty of a lack of hustle in not sprinting to retrieve Payton's ball.
Right
after that he criticized Fernando Vina for swinging at what he
said would have been ball four, yet a replay was not definitive
about that pitch being a ball. And when Edgard Renteria swung
and missed a fast ball by Armando Benitez, McCarver said, "I
think he won't see that pitch again, at least until the count
is 3 and 2." Benitez threw a fast ball on the very next
pitch and McCarver's partner Joe Buck, asked, "A fast ball
wasn't it?'
It isn't a question of McCarver being right or wrong on a prediction.
It's just that there are too many of them when they are not needed.
Too many of his predictions are intrusive, when he ought to just
let the action unfold willy-nilly.
This is not the McCarver of old. I believe much of this traces
to Buck, the man with whom he works. Buck, though young, is a
strong presence in his own right, a solid broadaster. But McCarver's
humor is too often lost with him because Buck tends to dismiss
it or try to top the older man. This cuts down on the zaniness
that was a part of the esssential McCarver. (He once said a raindrop
pool of water on top of a dugout "looked like the state
of Montana.") As a result I think he is pressing and that
comes out in the form of a querulousness, a need to be ahead
of the action with predictions.
With the Mets, McCarver was praised for making his partners better.
Sidekick Ralph Kiner said, "Tim gives you more openings.
He's fresh, creative. He's intelligent, sometimes way out. When
you get that kind of freshness and creativity, it gives you much
more to work off."
When McCarver was loose and did not have a partner who, however
subtly, was competing with him, he had this comment during a
Montreal-Mets game, when a third-grade class tickled the crowd
at Shea Stadium with its rendition of the Canadian and American
national anthems: "I can think of nothing that binds inernational
good will like the voices of children."
The word from a long time admirer is this: "Lighten up,
Tim."
© 2000 by Stan Isaacs. Photo of Tim McCarver is © 2000
by Fox Broadcasting. The cartoon image is from the IMSI Master/Clips
Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. East, San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506,
USA.
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