Voices of Summer: Ranking Baseball's 101 All-Time Best Announcers (60 page)

Pete joined the Washington Post, a 500-watt Warrenton, Virginia, station--"I
did news, sports, football on tape-delay"-and outlets in Manassas, Binghamton, and Toledo. In 1974, school took him to Mets' Triple-A Tidewater. Ted Turner
bought the Braves in January 1976. Two weeks later, the Professor made the
untenured bigs: "a double whammy in two ways."

He and Caray were both freshmen. Van Wieren also handled Braves travel.
"Planes, buses, equipment, trucks, hotels, meals, tickets-you name it, I did
it." Next year he moved solely to radio/TV.

By then, Turner could literally count a typical Atlanta crowd. Curiosa
starred camel relays, bathtubs on wheels, and an ostrich race. Once Ted
and Tug McGraw rolled baseballs from home to first and third base,
respectively-with their nose. "Look at yours," said a friend. Turner:
"Yeah, but I won."

Pete's bulging satchel helped avoid the field. "Those were the years," he
said, "we would have killed to be .500 in June." Van Wieren lived on Flames
hockey, Falcons/BigTen football, andTBS/TNT's NBA. In 1991, the Braves
finally contended. Daily he circled Fulton's club level. "I arrived early, not
wanting to miss a thing, because it might not happen again."

October 1: Atlanta led the Dodgers by a game. "Stretch by Smoltz," Pete
said on WTBS. "The pitch to Cedeno. A high fly ball to right field! It's fairly
deep! Back goes Justice! He's got it! And the magic number for Atlanta is
down to one! The Braves have clinched a tie for IN. L. West] first!"The Giants
then beat L.A.

In 1995, Van Wieren co-wrote the book America's Team. That fall, the
Braves became the first team to win the Series in three different cities.

"I keep thinking of '91. Little did we know that we'd he going back and
back" -1 3 straight playoffs over three presidencies, two recessions, and
two Gulf Wars. Empty post-season seats mirrored a growing yawn.
"We've gotten spoiled," said Pete, who hadn't, prepping as if calling the
'62 Mets.

In 2002, he attended the Society of Baseball Research convention. At the
time, many feared another strike. "It wouldn't hurt,"Van Wieren told a panel,
"if the Commissioner would say something positive about the game once in
a while." Unlike Pete, Bud Selig had run out of things to say.

Woody Allen said that 90 percent of success is showing up.

The Braves show up each October.

TBSers again smile that Van Wieren shows up each night.

PETE VAN WIBREN

"I am always ready to learn, though I do not always enjoy being taught,"
Churchill said. Hoping to learn, a bigs junkie can despair of being taught.
"Baseball fans best know their game," Jack Buck felt. "Because of that, you
can't teach 'em much that's new."

Two corollaries boost angst: ex-jock-turned-analyst and strategy gone
mad. "In football, you have to explain 18 pass routes!" Harry Caray rasped.
"Baseball's in the open. Who cares about whether the pitch is a knuckler or
curve? Boring! Tell stories!" Analysts miss because they misread the game.

Tim McCarver can explain the Uncle Charlie -- also why Omaha Beach
was gorier than Gold. The 1959-80 catcher is said to talk a lot. Smoking a
cigar, turning notes in a loose-leaf pad, and citing Lady MacBeth's "What's
done cannot be undone," he likely has a lot to say.

Shakespeare's quote, says Tim, applies to baseball. "You prepare, you
relax, then you let 'er rip." Teach, and learn.

McCarver was born ten days after the 1941 World Series. "A great event," said
the son of a police officer, "hut the real pressure is the playoffs. Lose it, and
you're forgotten by Thanksgiving." He could not forget how fastballs and sliders left the left thumb torn and twisted. "On cold days it hurts-a USS Arizona
memorial to the craft. Baseball did to me physically, and for me cerebrally."

Football was Tim's first love at Memphis's Christian Brothers High
School. Baseball became "my final love" after his 1959 signing. The Cardinals
owned the mid-South, including McCarver's Shelby County, Tennessee. "I'd
hear Harry Caray say certain names: Rip Repulski. Jocko Jablonski. Marvelous."
Gradually, he marveled at how "baseball was central to my life."

In 1963, St. Louis named Tim, 21, catcher. Next year, the Classic began
there. In NewYork, Mickey Mantle won GameThree. Next day theYanks led,
3-0, until Ken Boyer's slam. "Ken neared third as brother Clete got in the
baseline, making him run behind him as Kenny whacked him on the ass."
Blood was even thicker than a winning Series share.

McCarver's tenth-inning whippet carved a Game Five victory. "Those
three games in New York are as good as baseball gets." It got better in Game
Seven: St. Louis's first title since 1946. Tim hit a Series-high .478. Two years
later, his 13 triples led the league. 'Sixty-seven soldered 14 homers, 69 RBI,
and career-high .295.

Orlando Cepeda-Cha Cha-named his team "El Birdos." Once they
boarded the bus.

"Everybody on? We're ready," manager Red Schoendienst said.

"No!" shouted Bob Gibson, pitching. "[ 1967 N. L. MVP Orlando] Cepeda
isn't on, and we're not leaving till he gets here."

Thrice Gibbie beat Boston to take the Series. In 1968, he lost Game
Seven: McCarver made the final out. Otherwise, Bob beat the world.

Tim met him in spring 1960. "He was black, I was from the South, segregation ruled, and it was a terribly hot day." McCarver gave Bob a sip of
orange drink, later terming him "the luckiest pitcher I knew. He pitches
when the other team gets shut out." In Gibbie's 34 games, 1968 Nationals
scored 49 runs.

Bob worked like an eggtimer, mocking Tim's plea to slow down. "Go
back behind the plate. Only thing you know about pitching is that it's hard
to hit."The mound became a sanctuary. "What can you teach me?" Gibson bullied pitching coach Barney Schultz. "You were a knuckleballer. I throw fastballs!" Ultimately, McCarver and another pitcher were traded to
Philadelphia. They would anchor the same cemetery, he laughed, sixty feet
and six inches apart.

"Before a game, Steve'd be in a trance-like state," Tim said of Carlton. Once he apologized for knocking Lefty's motion. "That's okay," Steve
shrugged. "I didn't pay attention, anyway." The 1972 Cy Younger led the
N.L. in complete games, Ks, innings, ERA, and victories-27 of Phillv's
59! "Greatest season I ever saw," said McCarver, peddled that June. In
1975, the sphinx regained his guru. "I spent the next few years catching
Steve, pinch-hitting," and becoming one of seven modern four-decade
players.

Spring 1980: the new Phils Voice cuts the cord. "When you retire, you're
an outsider, not player. Broadcast like one," Tim said. Mike Schmidt got a
double after prematurely strutting his home-run trot. Next day McCarver
bearded him in the clubhouse. "I hear you ripped me for not hustling," Mike
snapped. Tim asked if he was.

"No," said Schmidt.

"Did I tell the truth?"

"Yes," Mike confessed.

By 1983, McCarver had hustled to Flushing Meadows.

In baseball, like real estate, location matters. "He has received much praise
for his work as a broadcaster for the [then-WOR and SportsChannell Mets,"
TSN soon noted. "This is much better than being lauded in Kansas City or
Houston because the networks are in New York, and so are their decisionmakers."

Tim analyzed several 1980 NBC "Game[s] of the Week." By 1984, he
aired the syndicated "Greats of the Game" and ABC's All-Star Game and
L.C.S. A year later, McCarver did the Series. John Tudor was "a surgeon. The
only difference is that when he takes the heart out of the team, he doesn't
replace it." Mused SI: "Nobody explicates the game with as much patience
and ... good humor."

In Chicago, spotting a rooftop wedding, Tim began a game-long divertissement.

"If the game gets rained out, does the wedding count?"

Said Ralph Kiner: "Only if it goes five innings."

One inning, Tim praised Stan Musial. The next Man, Harry Truman,
"threw pitches left- and right-handed." The Broadway junkie referenced
Stephen Sondheim's "The Little ThingsYou Do Together." Tonight, he said, "It
was the little things the Mets did together." How could he know so much?
Curiosity: the "first, not second, guess."

Dub baseball a narcotic. "You ask, `When do I walk away? Do I?"' He couldn't, vacationing at year's end. "Otherwise I spend too much time
thinking about the game."

The kicker was the end.

McCarver's got later every year.

Tim called 1986's N.L. L.C.S. Game Six: "the most tiring thing [Mets vs.
Astros] I have been part of as a spectator or player." 1987: hosted HBO's
"Greatest Sports Upsets" and an ABC children's show. 1989: toppled to the
TV booth floor on the Earthquake Series. 1990: joined CBS's Jack Buck.
"The network has exclusivity," said Broadcasting magazine. "Much rides on
them." Buck rode out to pasture in 1991. Next fall, Deion Sanders doused
McCarver with three buckets of ice water for scoring football "moonlighting." Nothing changed "the great impression," wrote USA Today, "that the
network doesn't care."

McCarver did, musing, "You take what they give you." A viewer took his
insight straight. Many players have "invisible injuries. They're ducking
responsibility." Bobby Valentine had Mel Rojas face Paul O'Neill. "A mistake,"
said Tim. O'Neill went deep. Behind, 4-3, a Reds runner clung to third on
a fly. "This game should be tied, and it's not." He tied MSG's "The Tim
McCarver Show," four books including Oh, Baby, I Love It!, and revived the
1996- "Game of the Week." Increasingly, the term analyst brought Fox's new
color man to mind.

In 1999, the Mets axed his $ 500,000 salary forTom Seaver: "a decision so
small," wrote Mike Lupica, "it could fit inside a batting glove." His fit pleased
the Yanks. "Tim's been critical of me," said George Steinbrenner, "hut that
makes no difference." In 2000, NewYork's twin tiaras staged the first Subway
Series since 1956. Roger Clemens threw a bat barrel at Mike Piazza. Instantly,
McCarver recalled Atlanta, 1962. "I was in Triple-A, slammed my bat, and it
bounced up into the lap of a 13-year-old."The father said, kindly and simply,
"We understand."

Tim won his first Emmy as top sports analyst. Stripes coverage then
turned cable. Leaving, he spliced the new (Giants TV) and old (ultimately,
record 21st straight post-season). Don't know much about history? Barry
Bonds's bases-full intentional walk evoked Leo Durocher passing Willie
McCovey. "Baseball was shocked. But everybody does that with Bonds."
Don't know much biology? Triples fell due to "guys not running hard out of
the box."

"The most credible man in baseball broadcasting," said columnist Tim Kawakami. Not all agreed: A San Francisco Chronicle poll overwhelmingly
named him TV's "most annoying sportscaster." One e-mailer wrote: "The
biggest braying blowhard in baseball blathers on. The baboon is just such a
stultifying simpleton, so mindnumbingly awful, so wretchedly moronic, so
incredibly incompetent, such a complete and utter abomination in the eyes
of man and God."

Dead-pan, Tim paused: "Guess he's not a fan."

McCarver left the Jints in December 2002. "I'm not here to please
people. I'm here to report and have a good time doing it." Next year, he telecast his record 78th Series game, passing Curt Gowdy's 77. On occasion,
even an old-guarder sees a gosh, I've never seen that play. We hear it from
McCarver.

Teach, and learn.

TIM MCCARVER

"You may solve the Berlin Crisis, or not," Joseph P. Kennedy told son
Robert, then Attorney General, in 1961, "but nothing is as important as
how you raise your family." Jack Buck raised eight children to think independently-yet it was important to his second-youngest to enter broadcasting. "Baseball," said Joe, "is that which binded me to the man I most
admire."

In 1989, Buckfils joined Triple-A Louisville. In 1991, he joined pere at
KMOX St. Louis. Before long, Joe aired Fox TV baseball and football: the
youngest to regularly do either. "When Jack heard something by him," said
mother Carole, a former actress, "he'd say, `God, he's good."'