McCarver newest addition to Giants' television team

One of baseball broadcasting's biggest names will join the Giants' television team this season, if only on a part-time basis.

Tim McCarver, a 13-time Emmy Award nominee, will make about 25 appearances on KTVU. The former All-Star catcher will team with Mike Krukow, mostly when play-by-play man Jon Miller is off working for ESPN's Sunday night telecasts.

``What you're trying to do as a broadcaster is maximize the reporting value and the entertainment value,'' McCarver, 60, said Wednesday, shortly after the official announcement. ``You want to be two guys talking about the game and the audience feels fortunate enough to be listening in on the conversation.''

McCarver, the lead analyst for Fox's Saturday broadcasts since 1996, has also worked for ABC and CBS.

He worked about 50 local telecasts a year for the New York Yankees over the previous three seasons but failed to reach an agreement with the team this season. Along came an offer from the Giants, who needed to replace Ted Robinson, the play-by-play man who took a job earlier this month with the New York Mets.

McCarver said he jumped at the chance -- even if his previous work in San Francisco was a little shaky. Sitting beside Al Michaels before Game 3 of the 1989 World Series, McCarver went sprawling to the ground when the earthquake hit.

``I hope that this is just the first year of many in San Francisco,'' said McCarver, who has never been to Pacific Bell Park.

McCarver's addition only partially replaces Robinson. Larry Baer, the Giants' executive vice president, said the team would add another voice to the booth later this week.

Baer is ecstatic about adding McCarver to a team that features Krukow, Miller, Duane Kuiper and Lon Simmons. ``We feel our broadcast team is second to none,'' he said.

Krukow and McCarver go back more than 20 years. Krukow, then a Chicago Cubs pitcher, first faced McCarver in the mid 1970s. The two became friends when Krukow joined the 1982 Philadelphia Phillies, for whom McCarver was a broadcaster.

``I was the fifth man in a four-man booth,'' McCarver quipped.

Krukow said he is eager to lean on someone whose playing career spanned four decades.

``His career almost exactly parallels the Giants' time in San Francisco,'' Krukow said of McCarver, who made his debut in 1959, a year after the Giants left New York. ``He knows every era. I could ask him how to pitch to Jimmy Ray Hart and he would know.''

(``Don't give him anything up and out over the plate,'' McCarver chimed.)