RetroSimba

Cardinals catchers sometimes make successful baseball broadcasters.

On Dec. 7, Tim McCarver was named the 2012 Ford C. Frick Award winner for excellence in broadcasting.

McCarver is one of three former Cardinals players to earn the Frick Award. The others, Joe Garagiola (1991) and Bob Uecker (2003), also were catchers.

_ Garagiola played for the Cardinals from 1946-51 and was a member of their 1946 World Series championship team.

_ Uecker played for the Cardinals as McCarver’s backup from 1964-65 and was a member of their 1964 World Series championship team.

_ McCarver played for the Cardinals from 1959-69 and 1973-74, was a member of their 1964 and 1967 World Series championship teams and was the analyst for FOX during its telecasts of the 2011 World Series that yielded the Cardinals their 11th championship.

In a conference call interview arranged by the Hall of Fame, McCarver said, “There is a natural bridge from being a catcher to talking about the view of the game and the view of the other players. It is translating that for the viewers.”

A 20-member committee consisting of 15 Frick Award winners (including Garagiola and Uecker) and five broadcast historians/columnists (including St. Louis resident Bob Costas) voted for the 2012 Frick Award winner.

McCarver first explored a career in broadcasting in 1975. After he was released by the Red Sox on June 23, McCarver, 33, said he figured his playing career was finished. He went to Philadelphia and auditioned for broadcasting jobs with television stations there. The Phillies surprised him by offering him a playing contract. McCarver signed with them July 1.

In 1977, as the Blue Jays prepared for their inaugural season as an American League expansion franchise in Toronto, they contacted McCarver. Writing about it in October 1979 for The Sporting News, Hal Bodley reported:

The Blue Jays offered McCarver a four-year contract as a member of their radio-TV team. He turned it down. At that time, there was an informal agreement that when he finally decided to retire, he would get some type of a position with the (Philadelphia) club.

In his Hall of Fame conference call this month, McCarver confirmed that Phillies executive Bill Giles approached him in 1977 and “told me that when my playing days were over there would be a spot for me in the broadcast booth.”

When McCarver retired as a player after the 1979 season, the Phillies did hire him for their broadcast team, primarily to work with Prism, a fledgling cable television company that did about 30 Phillies games each year.

“I have often said that I was very fortunate to get into the business with the likes of (Phillies broadcasters) Andy Musser, Harry Kalas, Chris Wheeler and, of course, the irrepressible Richie Ashburn,” McCarver said.

By all accounts, McCarver, glib and gabby, was a broadcast natural. Yet, he yearned to become just the 10th player to appear in major-league games stretching over four decades. On Sept, 1, 1980, the Phillies activated him. McCarver had five at-bats in six games. His only hit (a two-run double off Steve Ratzer of the Expos) came at Montreal in his final game, Oct. 5, 1980, 11 days shy of his 39th birthday. Boxscore

After three years as a Phillies broadcaster, McCarver joined the Mets’ broadcast team in 1983 and stayed with them through 1998. He also has been a broadcaster for the Yankees, Giants and Cardinals, and with NBC, CBS, The Baseball Network and FOX.

With CBS, he was paired with longtime Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck, another Frick Award winner (1987).