Baseball players have the best memories. They can recall at-bats and pitch sequences from years ago. I have some of that in my brain too, but the detail with which the players remember things never ceases to amaze me.
My favorite example of that—Tim McCarver.
The former FOX baseball analyst is one of the best announcers in the history of sports television. He received the highest honor for a baseball announcer when he was named the Ford Frick Award Winner in 2012, earning recognition at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
McCarver entertained audiences not only with his ability to break down a game, but with his seemingly photographic memory, which recalled stories and details of games from decades past that related to what he had just seen on the field only moments ago. How good was that memory?
The week before the 1996 World Series was to begin I was on the field for the workout day at old Yankee Stadium. I was a producer at WFAN then and had spoken to McCarver over the phone many times, but never in person. So I walked over and introduced myself during batting practice.
After a brief chat I thanked McCarver for all the times he came on our shows during the season and revealed to him that I actually had met him one other time. It was in the summer of 1979 at an autograph signing at the Harrisburg East Mall near my home in Middletown, Pennsylvania. I was 9 years old. McCarver, then a catcher for the Phillies, made the 90-mile trip from Philadelphia along with his teammate, Tug McGraw, for a Saturday morning appearance. They signed for an hour or two and then headed back 90 miles the other direction for a night game.
McCarver paused for a moment after hearing this story, looked at me and said, “That was a Hess’s Department Store, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was,” I said after picking my jaw up off the ground.
It was a monumental day for me—meeting a major leaguer in person. For McCarver, it was just a way to spend a few hours making some extra money. Yet, his recall was so good he turned my second meeting with him into one that would be just as memorable as the first.
These days when I begin to quiz a player for his recollections of games and moments that happened two or three decades earlier, I am still amazed to find that they have such exquisite details etched in their brains. And their ability to share those details is a gift for us as much as it is for them.