Did you enjoy Tim McCarver on your Cardinals telecasts in 2014?
Doesn’t matter.
FSN and McCarver have agreed to basically the same deal for 2015 that he had last year. 30 games working with Dan McLaughlin doing play-by-play. No one is more happy about this than STLToday.com media columnist Dan Caesar.
“Tim McCarver provided a big boost to Cardinals’ telecasts last year with his sugar-free commentary, as he served as analyst for 30 games on the team’s local productions on Fox Sports Midwest.”
Here’s Dan on Tim from his year end recap a few weeks ago:
“His no-holding-back analysis was a refreshing addition to a booth that often is too “rah-rah Redbirds” when it comes to giving objective commentary.”
And here’s Dan on Tim from August 8th:
“If Tim McCarver had any doubts about his big career change at age 72, they quickly faded. And he’s been a monumental addition to Cardinals telecasts this season.”
Anyway, he’s been a hit with the only sports media critic in St. Louis. Rick Horton and Al Hrabosky will serve as analysts the other games FSN carries in 2015, with Horton doing limited play-by-play.
It’s de rigueur in today’s Twitterpated broadcast landscape to hammer on all of the aforementioned announcing professionals.
I won’t do that today. These 4 men do a serviceable job.
It’s not radio where a singular voice is paramount. Chances are you’re on your phone or laptop when watching a game on TV, so you can get tons of salient game commentary in any tone you want on-demand.
Al, Rick and Dan are going to never spew the vitriol that we’d like when the Cardinals are sucking wind. It’s not in their best professional interests. But thanks to technology, their job as announcers has changed… they’re table setters (what’s going on at the park) and information purveyors (why did so and so get pulled so early). Do they give commentary? Yes.
They’re not the only ones, though. You’re free to choose new sidekicks.
The continued addition of McCarver lends a gravitas to the Cardinals TV production that deserves gravitas. This is one the crown jewels of baseball and having a recognizable (if not always correct) name involved helps.
It helps something.
I think.
Photo: NY Post
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