Legendary MLB player, broadcaster Tim McCarver dies at 81

Legendary broadcaster and former MLB player Tim McCarver has died.

McCarver died on Thursday at the age of 81, according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

McCarver played in the majors for 21 seasons from 1959-1980. The former catcher spent the bulk of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals. He was a two-time All-Star and won two World Series during his 12 total seasons with the Cardinals.

McCarver, a career .271 hitter, retired after the 1979 season and joined the Philadelphia Phillies’ broadcast team in 1980. He returned as a player for the final six games of the 1980 season so he could officially appear in games across four different decades. McCarver became just the 11th player in MLB history to accomplish that feat.

After he retired for good in 1980, McCarver became a national broadcaster when he served as a backup analyst with NBC’s “Game of the Week.” He continued to call Phillies games from 1980-82 and then joined the New York Mets’ broadcast team, where he worked from 1983-98. McCarver called games nationally for ABC, CBS and Fox while also working for the Mets. He called his first World Series in 1985 as a last-minute replacement for Howard Cosell.

McCarver is perhaps best known for the time he spent at Fox. He joined the network in 1996 after it acquired the main MLB rights package. McCarver and partner Joe Buck called games for the network from 1996-2013. They worked 23 World Series and 20 All-Star Games together.

McCarver called Cardinals games on a part-time basis from 2014 until he retired last season. He was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2017.