Tim McCarver retired as Fox’s leading analyst after the World Series. But he’s not dropping the mic just yet: Fox Sports Midwest is about to hire him to do a limited number of Cardinals games next season.
The idea is for him to do 20-25 games, with opportunities coming as a result of an expected reduction in Mike Shannon’s schedule, which would lead TV guys Rick Horton and Al Hrabosky to shift to radio duty, thereby opening up slots for McCarver.
Which I think is good. I know McCarver bugs a lot of fans, especially younger ones. But when he’s not trying to play up to bigger storylines and simply talks about the game in front of him, he’s still an excellent analyst. Those opportunities became increasingly rare over the past few years, as in-game interviews of managers and the drama of postseason series coverage came to the fore. But in regular season games I bet McCarver will show folks that he still has it.