Baseball fans around the country were treated to some wonderful news yesterday: FOX Sports analyst Tim McCarver announced his retirement during a typically long-winded conference call filled with the false humility that is his trademark. The insufferable buffoon, the unquestioned Master of the Obvious, the Nattering Nabob of the Non-Sequitur will retire after the 2013 World Series. TIME magazine’s blog has a good round-up of his career. Highlights from the post include:
For the most part, especially in recent years, it’s been a role that has earned him substantial criticisms for a variety of gaffes. In addition to a handful of incidences where he mispronounced players’ names—sometimes repeatedly—he also miscounted the number of letters in the word “strike” and seemed to believe that San Francisco Giants fans used to chant “Barry! Barry! Barry!” for singer Barry Manilow, rather than slugger Barry Bonds. The first miscue took place during the 2011 World Series, while the latter occurred during last year’s Fall Classic. By all accounts, they were not isolated incidents.
For another trip down memory lane of botched baseball analysis, Baseball Nation provided this detailed review of McCarver’s TV career (and successful plea for his retirement, as it turned out). My favorite nugget: “This year, there was McCarver’s wacky claim that ‘global warming’ was increasing the number of home runs hit because ‘the air is thinner’, and it got worse during the postseason.”
Tim: It’s never too late to amend your timeline and bow out of the 2013 World Series.
FOX: Don’t even think of bringing Joe Morgan back into the booth.
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