WTF Was McCarver Talking About
 

R1. Long flyball to CF. CF runs after it, reaches for it, misses it. Ball bounces into the stands for a groundrule double. R1 returns to 3rd.

McCarver kept saying the Reds were lucky that the CF did not "touch the ball" before it went into the stands.

I am not an umpire but I do try to stay up on the rules. Is there some rule I'm missing that would have allowed R1 to score had it been determined that the CF touched the ball?

Spence,

No.

JM

Tim McCarver may have been an excellent athlete but he has a legacy of commentary misspeak. I will have to dig a bit but I once received an email with a link to McCarver and Joe Morgan blunders. It was pretty entertaining for those of us who understand the rules and terminology.

Great ball player, now a total effing idiot. When he does commentary I watch games on mute.

WTF is McCarver EVER talking about? Also: NOT a great ballplayer...but he turned being Steve Carlton's personal catcher into a lucrative career.

Perhaps he meant it was good that the ball did not deflect into the stands off of the player. Only thing I can figure.

CSN SportsNet wrap up had same comment. Stupid after stupid.

That's the only possibility. Deflected and over the fence without touching ground.

Most likely, especially since we've seen it happen this year. A very poorly phrased sentence from him...but then again he is McCarver and an announcer so not a shock. It's the same or worse on other sports.

He can't have meant that, as he described the defense as "lucky" that F8 didn't touch the ball.

What we meant is "Tim was confusing another rule with what actually happened. Tim was thinking in his head of the rule we mentioned, but including it in a situation where the ball actually bounces inside the park first."

In other words, Tim doesn't know anything about the finer rules of baseball and was trying to sound smart.

The link with Morgan's and McCarver's blunders is no longer viable. I found this: The I Hate Tim McCarver Home Page

and

”The McCarver Drinking Game
Here’s how to play:
Get a bottle of your favorite booze and a shot glass and…
1: Drink every time Tim uses a multi-syllable word incorrectly.
2: Drink every time Tim states the obvious like it is a profound insight.
3: Drink every time Tim calls the play wrong.
4: Drink every time Tim gets a player’s name wrong.
5: Drink every time one of Tim’s inane comments is met with stoney silence by the other broadcasters in the booth.
My guarantee is you’ll be drunk by the bottom of the 1st inning!"

And with that, I have no dispute whatever. :)

You guys are too hard on McCarver. He meant simply that by not touching the ball, the outfielder (and the Reds) avoided being charged with an error.

Maybe we are hard on him, but that's wrong, too. :rolleyes:

Too hard on McCarver? Not possible.

Congratulations. You were the 100th person to start a thread with that exact title. You've won a year's supply of Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco Treat.

Not being up on the world of baseball commentators (I only watch Mariner's baseball and our local color guys), it sounds like McCarver is to baseball what Theisman is to football. :p

Theisman does the Mariners baseball games...who knew?

You struggled with analogies on the SAT, right? :rolleyes:

Like a cheetah struggles with running.

You guys are too hard on McCarver. He meant simply that by not touching the ball, the outfielder (and the Reds) avoided being charged with an error.

Maybe we are hard on him, but that's wrong, too.

What do you mean wrong? If the ball doesn't hit the glove, it can't be an error. Conversely, if it does hit the glove, it is an error. It's right on the same page where it says you have to hold the ball for three seconds for it to be a legal catch.

Walt, that is what I love about your wit!:cool:

McCarver
 

:eek: He is an idiot, has-been that never was. He is a lifetime .250 avg. certainly nothing to brag about, and so true about being Charlton's jock strap catcher.
Where is Dion Sanders when we need him, to dump another bucket of ice water on McC:confused: and wake him up?????

While this may be true, he has the luxury many of us want. He got paid to play a game and he gets to watch games for a living. The one luxury (spoiler I guess) is to look like an idiot on national TV and doesn't know any better to realize how stupid he sounds. If all I had to do was try to avoid sounding stupid on TV but not accomplishing it very well, I'll take that job. Maybe I won't be as bad.

you got me... i messed that one up like a football bat.

simile. Not analogy. :)

I really don't think you mean Norm Charlton, do you? Did you mean Steve Carlton, by chance?:confused:

No ... Charlton Fisk. :)