Page 193 - 1975 BoSox

186 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
rst career grand slam, a rare inside-the-park grand slam. McCarver hit a shot at the Polo Grounds that Mets center elder Rod Kanehl slipped going after and McCarver raced around the bases before Kanehl could recover. McCarver was also a popular player in the clubhouse. Not surprisingly, he was viewed as a cerebral player who liked to pick at the nuances of the game, but he also had a very keen sense of humor. He was noted for his dead-on impersonation of Frank Fontaine, who was the rubber-faced funny man Crazy Guggenheim on the very popular Jackie Gleason show.
A July 22, 1967 article in e Sporting News recapped some pretty heady praise McCarver inspired in his rookie season. Wally Schang, known both for his days as catcher with Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics and for the rst three Yankees pennant-winning teams, said, “ e kid reminds me of Mickey Cochrane. I don’t know if McCarver will hit with Cochrane, but he’s got Mickey’s same aggressiveness and speed. And as a kid, McCarver’s a pretty good hitter right now.” e legendary Branch Rickey was quoted in the same article as comparing McCarver to Bill DeLancey, catcher from the 1934 Cardinals Gas House Gang: “DeLancey had the stronger throwing arm, but Tim’s arm is strong enough. McCarver’s a solid .280 hitter. He could hit .300 and he can run faster than DeLancey could. He has the same aggressiveness and baseball intelligence.”
Success did not go to his head and 1964 would prove to be a big year for Tim and the St. Louis Cardinals. He followed his strong rookie campaign with another good season as he batted .288 with 9 homers and 52 RBIs. He hit three triples, a fall-o from seven the year before. e Cards found themselves in a tight pennant race in September 1964, a season that is known for the collapse of the Philadelphia Phillies. On September 21, with a 61⁄2-game lead and World Series tickets already printed, the Phillies dropped 10 con- secutive games and found themselves in a four-way race along with St. Louis, San Francisco, and Cincinnati. Despite losing two straight games to the lowly Mets on the nal weekend of the season, the Cards pulled out the pennant when they nally beat
the Mets in the last game while the Reds, with manager Fred Hutchinson dying of cancer, lost to the Phillies.
St. Louis would head o to the World Series to play the New York Yankees. McCarver was a standout. In the critical Game Five, with the Series squared at two games apiece, Bob Gibson had the Yankees shut out until Tom Tresh hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to knot the score, 2-2. McCarver then hit a three-run homer in the top of the 10th inning and the Cards held on for a 5-2 victory and the Series lead. St. Louis won the series in the seventh game and had its rst World Championship since 1946. McCarver batted .478 with 11 hits in 23 at-bats, knocking in ve runs and scoring four. He also tied a Series record by hitting safely in all seven games. It was quite a year for a young man who turned 23 the day after the Series ended. He capped the year by marrying his high school sweetheart, Anne McDaniel, on December 29,1964. e McCarvers would eventu- ally have two daughters, Kelly and Kathy.
1965 began inauspiciously as he broke a nger in spring training and missed the rst week of the regular season. Battling injuries all season that limited him to 113 games, he was still productive at the plate nishing with 11 homers, 48 RBIs, and a .276 average. e Cardinals slumped to a seventh-place nish as several key players — most notably Ken Boyer, Ray Sadecki, and Curt Simmons—had signi cant drop-o s in performance. e club improved only slightly to a sixth-place nish in 1966, but McCarver had another ne season at the plate. He improved to 12 home runs, 68 RBIs, and had a .274 average, and set a major-league record for catchers with a league-leading 13 triples. He stayed injury-free and was a workhorse behind the plate, catching in 148 games.
e 1966 All-Star Game was held in St. Louis and McCarver was selected for the rst time to represent the National League. On a very hot day, McCarver began a game-winning rally in the bottom of the 10th with a single. He was sacri ced to second by Ron Hunt and scored on a single by Maury Wills, beating Tony Oliva’s throw to the plate.