Sports and Torts: Tim McCarver

McCarver spent 21 seasons behind the plate in the majors, and has been in the broadcast booth for 34 years and counting. We\'ll cover it all in this wide ranging conversation

Sports and Torts: John Hadl

Hadl was the AFL\'s leading passer in both 1965 and 1968, and was a four-time AFL All-Star. In 1969, he was selected as the AFL All-Star Game\'s Most Valuable Player. The other half of the Chargers\' potent passing/receiving tandem was Lance Alworth, the first American Football League player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Many observers believe that Hadl, who threw most of the passes that Alworth received, also belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Tim McCarver

Scouted at age fifteen by Yankee Hall of Fame catcher Bill Dickey, who, at the time, was working for the St. Louis Cardinals, Memphis-reared Tim McCarver was a standout on both the gridiron and baseball diamond. After signing with the Cardinals in his senior year of high school, McCarver debuted with the Major League team as a seventeen year old in 1959, commencing a twenty-one year Major League career that would span four decades.



Earning the role of full-time catcher with the Cardinals in 1963, McCarver excelled at and behind the plate. In 1964, McCarver was the World Series’ Most Valuable Player, batting .478 and leading his team to a dramatic seven game triumph over the New York Yankees. From 1964-1969, McCarver developed lifelong friendships with Cardinals’ future Hall of Fame pitchers Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton, who respected his valued insights on opposing hitters.



McCarver starred in two more World Series, 1967 and 1968, before being traded, unexpectedly, to the Philadelphia Phillies at the 1969 season. After brief sojourns with the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos, McCarver re-joined his old teammate Steve Carlton in Philadelphia and appeared in three consecutive National League Championship Series from 1976-1978. Early in the 1980 season, McCarver retired from the Phillies and Major League Baseball as one of only four players to play in four decades.



McCarver’s broadcast career started with the Philadelphia Phillies, almost immediately after his retirement as a player, but it wasn’t long before his talents were recognized by NBC and WOR, the superstation home of the New York Mets. Within two years, McCarver was doing double duty as the network’s Game of the Week baseball analyst and WOR’s everyday analyst of the New York Mets, becoming a mainstay in All-Star and World Series broadcasts. After leaving the Mets at the conclusion of the 1998 season, McCarver excelled as the New York Yankees broadcast analyst for three years, before serving the same role for the San Francisco Giants in 2002.

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John Hadl

One of the best all-around players ever to play college football and one of the greatest quarterbacks to play in the National Football League, John Hadl was a three–time All–Big Eight selection and the first two–time first team All–American in football (halfback in 1960 and quarterback in 1961) at the University of Kansas. Hadl led the NCAA in punting as a sophomore in 1959 and was the first player ever to be named the Most Valuable player of both the East–West Shrine game (1961) and College All–Star Game (1962). Hadl set KU school records for longest interception return (98 yards) and the longest punt (94 yards) in a game. He played 18 years in the National Football League with the San Diego Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Green Bay Packers and Houston Oilers and was named the NFL man of the year in 1971 and Most Valuable Player in 1973. He was an assistant coach for the Kansas football program from 1979–81 and 1988–1990 and served the university’s athletic department in several areas.

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