october-2010

story. Ask them what it’s like to work
apart, as they do about a dozen times a
season, and they gush.
“When you’re not with the best, you
miss it,” McCarver says. Buck jumps
in. “It’s like driving a Lamborghini and
trading it in for a Pinto,” he says. “Tim’s
always in my foxhole. I’m not afraid to
say I love the man.”
On the surface, Buck and McCarver’s
“bromance” seems unlikely. They come
from diff erent eras, but the generation
gap usually works to their advantage.
“I think of Tim like a really, really older
brother.” Buck says, causing McCarver
to let out a rumbling laugh before
falling forward and slapping his knee.
“If I reference a Foo Fighters song, Tim
won’t know what I’m talking about.”
“No idea,” McCarver says. “But I like
that. Joe keeps me young.”
McCarver’s reference points lie in the
’60s and ’70s, when he was shuffl ing
around the country as a catcher for the
Cardinals and Phillies. Things were
a little tougher for players back then.
That’s why McCarver gets so upset if
he sees a player loafi ng. He’s no fan of
showboating, hot-dogging or strutting,
either. And quitters? McCarver once
called Manny Ramirez “despicable” for
“refusing to play” while in Boston.
During games, Buck’s banter fl ows
between pop stars and pop-ups. His
dry humor is one of his hallmarks.
BUCK THE SYSTEM President Obama joins
the duo during the 2009 All-Star Game; and,
left, at St. Louis’s Busch Stadium in 2008.
“Baseball can get monotonous, and
there’s a redundancy inherent to
broadcasting the game,” he said. “If you
watch a pop fl y hit to second, do you
really need me to tell you there was a
pop fl y hit to second?”
Not everyone is a fan of their approach.
They have large anti-followings online
who ridicule their every broadcast. But
neither seems to care.
“Not all of that stuff is bad,” McCarver
says. “It’s good to see what people think
of your performance, even if they don’t
like it.” But he’ll admit he’s happy that
ShutUpTimMcCarver.com, a website
that chronicles his “McCarverisms,”
hasn’t been updated in almost fi ve years.
The anti-Buck sites remain more
active. Popular sports blogs like
Deadspin and Awful Announcing have
made ridiculing Buck a recurring
feature. Surprisingly, Buck doesn’t
sweat it, and though at times he’s
defended himself online, he says he’s
also paid heed to his critics.
“I’ve grown from it,” Buck says. “For
example, I listened in particular to
the criticism about how I try to be too
funny. I thought the person had a good
point, and I’ve tried to tone it down.”
In the booth at least. Sit down
with him and McCarver for an hour
and the jokes fl ow as liberally as the
compliments. But again, this is how
two men engaged in the throes of a
bromance behave. Right, Tim?
“I don’t know what that word
means,” he says. And Joe smiles
knowingly.
New York–based writer ADAM K.
RAYMOND’s head is large, but not
abnormally so.
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