Mets Announcer Tournament First Round: Tom Seaver vs. Tim McCarver

mine was a vote against mccarver.

As someone who remembers Tim McCarver during the 80’s I can say that he was much better then, than he is now. I attribute that to the fact that the three man booth of McCarver, Kiner, and Zabriskie, allowed each to share play-by-play and color duties. Now that Timmeh only does color it has become a constant demonstration of how much he “knows” mixed with awkward, obscure, and often incorrect pop culture references.

Seaver never really seemed to embrace the booth.

As of now I remain undecided.

Growing up in the 80s, I learned a lot of what I know about baseball by watching a much more subdued McCarver. I agree that he is completely insufferable now, but back then he was a welcome dose of insight and perspective.

Never felt Seaver has added much to my viewing experience as an announcer.

We’ve been really lucky – a LOT of great announcers over the years.

that being said, the guy desereves to be arrogant as one of the best pitchers ever and that attitude probably helped get him where he is today. While Darling does a great job explaining grips and pitching, Seaver can rival him if given the right questions. That’s the real problem with Seaver, he needs a good straight man if you’ll allow me to use a comedy metaphor.

I wonder how many unique voters there are as opposed to one person voting multiple times…

regardless of how bearable and inoffensive he was in the past.

So it wouldn’t be fair for me to vote. If it were based on recent performance, I would go with Seaver all the way.

i don’t really remember seaver as a broadcaster (didn’t watch much baseball during his tenure). so my vote went to mccarver.

I remember him being better in the Yankees booth than he was with the Mets. Maybe he was more into it back then or maybe compared to Rizzuto anyone was better. I know that doesn’t matter since this is about his Mets tenure, but I though I’d throw that out there.

I’m too young to remember McCarver in the 80’s, but when I started watching I didn’t like him that much. I don’t want my announcers to be homers (I think I’d kill myself if I was a Marlins fan), but I used to get the feeling that McCarver actively disliked the Mets. In a town where the top radio hosts on the Mets flagship station were a Yankees and a Giants fan, I didn’t care for a Mets broadcaster who seemed to be rooting against the team. He seemed much happier when he went to the Yankees, and I was much happier as well.

Seaver wasn’t great, but I always found his arrogance to be pretty funny. He had a very “I’m Tom Seaver and you’re not” attitude, which I kinda loved.

He, Zabriskie, and Ralph on Channel 9 on a summer night was one of the things the 9-year-old version of me really looked forward to. Tim wasn’t as much of a Joe Morgan-lite back then (maybe FOX trained him to be more idiotic, it is FOX, after all) and he worked well with Ralph and Steve.

Seaver wasn’t bad, but McCarver was better back in the 80s.

in BASEketball.

McCarver was pretty good back in the day, even through the mid 90’s. He really helped draw me into baseball, personally. Seaver, meanwhile… well, I wish his stint in the booth had never happened.

What happened to the updated bracket links?

Before the abomination that is Comcast Sportsnet Filadelfia ever existed, I used to get Channel 9 as a kid, and that’s where all the Mets games were broadcast. I remember McCarver teamed up with Gary Thorne. I found him to be tolerable then, and I liked Thorne as well. So based on that experience, and the fact that Seaver could come across as condescending behind the microfone, my vote went to McCarver. It probably won’t in the later rounds, though.