Lunch with Tim McCarver in February 1987 [by David Lehman]

Tim McCarver died yesterday at age 81.

Back in spring 1987, McCarver, a terrific catcher who caught Bob Gibson with the Cardinals and Steve Carlton with the Phillies, was calling plays for the New York Mets. He made the cover of Esquire and had a book coming out (wotking with professional sportswriter Ray Ropbinson). I wasn't crazy about the book's title: Oh, Baby, I Love It! but the book confirmed that McCarver was as good a baseball analyst as there was. The Mets had won the 1986 World Series in the most exciting post-season of the decade, and a piece on the book made sense. At Newsweek the editors always preferred a feature to a straight book review, so I proposed flying to Philadelphia, taking Tim to lunch, and writing it up. I got the okay. 

McCarver, who lived in Gladwin, Pennsylvania,  proposed Le Bec Fin, the best French restaurant in Philadephia, for our lunch, and they gave us a private room. It was probably the most expensive lunch I ever charged to the magazine, with wonderful wines, and it lasted three or more hours, with Tim's wife stopping by for a few minutes and a cigar delivered to the room when it was time for espresso. According to my notes I wore a gray blazer with a knit tie and he wore a cashmere sport coat with a blue silk patterned tie and navy trousers.

With unforced pleasure Tim answered my questions and appraised various players and prospects. Tim, who had a lot of opinions and wasn't shy about sharing them, felt that a good sinking fastball made the batter feel as if he were "striking an anvil with sugar cane." Bob Gibson regarded the pitcher's mound "as his prIvate office." Spitballs should be made legal, because "nearly all pitchers throw them."  The "scuff" ball thrown by Mike Scott of the Astros, who gave the '86 Mets a fit, was "more illegal," but the Mets made a mistake in obsessing over it. "Of course if I'd been on the team, I would have probably done the same thing." What was the biggest psychological problem confronting a professional baliplayer? "Fear of failure." Also, "the hell of being alone." Tim agreed with Joe DiMaggio about opening day: "It's like a birthday party when you were a kid."

There was a rumor at the time that the Mets were offering Ron Darling and Mookie Wilson in a trade for the Dodgers' Orel Hershiser. "Ain't ever gonna happen," Tim said. "Hershiser is one of the great pitchers in the game." (This was before Hershiser's Cy Young year when he threw nearly sixty straight innings aithout a run and beat Oakland twice in the World Series, once by shutout.) As a traditionalist, he said "I hate the designated hitter," because it changes the very nature of the game. 

Tim loved Gerswin, Berlin, Cole Porter. When the Mets, tired of being loveable losers, started winning games in 1984, Tim hummed Duke Ellington's "Things Ain't What They Used to Be" on the air. Who was the best ptcher he ever faced? For sheer talent, no souithpaw could compare with Sandy Koufax. Keith Hernandez was "the most artistic fielding first-baseman" Tim had ever seen. Solidly built, six feet tall, Tim may have been the most artistic play-by-play man this side of Vin Scully.   -- DL

Comments

[Catherine Woodard]

McCarver taught me a lot about baseball when I knew very little. Thanks David.

[jim c]

I love Tim McCarver and I love this piece. Great report from a lunch to die for. When he died last week I looked up his Baseball Ref entry. Great catcher, good hitter, best announcer ever. (In the midwest I didn't get a lot of Vin Scully.) Most eye-popping stat: McCarver once led the league with 13 triples!!! THIRTEEN! He had more triples than homers that year. Triples are usually associated with speed, of which McCarver had little. He must've mashed that year.

[Lewis Saul]

Best color announcer of all time! That sounds like one helluva lunch!

[Mark Statman]

I remember him a little as a ball player but more as a broadcaster (Mets fan here). He was an amazing analyst, thoughtful, opinionated, passionate. And literary. On air, he compared the Mets-Astros 1986 Game 5, 12 inning playoff game, one that lasted 3:45, to Beowulf for its epic qualities (the Mets won 2-1 on a Gary Carter single up the middle). Timmy’s memory a blessing. Thanks David.

[Vincent Katz]

Just read this piece to my dad. When I got to the part about the best pitcher he’d ever faced, I paused before saying his name, gestured to my dad, and he supplied the name, “Sandy Koufax.” I’m a huge McCarver fan. I think I have BASEBALL FOR BRAIN SURGEONS somewhere, and Tim appears (as announcer) in a World Series poem of mine.

[David Lehman]

Thanks to all for your comments, much appreciated.