One of the more successful pitchers of the 1970's was Steve Carlton and he had a "personal catcher" for some of those successful seasons in Tim McCarver. The story of how these two became a great battery is told in this book. Here is my review of "Lefty and Tim."
Title/Author: “Lefty
and Tim: How Steve Carlton and Tim McCarver Became Baseball’s Best Battery” by William
C. Kashatus
Rating: 4 of 5 stars (very good)
Review: The two
men who are the subject of this book, Steve Carlton and Tim McCarver, are both
members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, albeit in different areas. Carlton, one of the most dominant left-handed
pitchers in the history of the game, was a first-ballot inductee for his
pitching. McCarver, who had a long
productive career as a catcher for several teams, had even more success as a
broadcaster and his long and illustrious career there was rewarded with the
Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor bestowed to baseball broadcasters and a
spot in the Hall of Fame.
However, Hall of Fame credentials are not all that link the
two together. They both started their careers with the St. Louis Cardinals,
where they developed a friendship that would develop into a great working
relationship where McCarver became Carlton’s personal catcher – first with the
Cardinals until they traded McCarver to the Philadelphia Phillies before the
1970 season and then later when Carlton was also sent to the Phillies before
the 1972 season for a brief time before becoming teammates once again in 1976. This pairing of pitcher and catcher is captured
in this book by William C. Kashatus.
Kashatus is known for his work on books about the Phillies,
especially the depth of knowledge he has about the team and it shows in this
book. The seasons in which Carlton and
McCarver worked together are captured in great detail with a lot of game
descriptions and rundowns of the outcomes of their teams. This is the case for
not only their time together in Philadelphia but also in St. Louis, where there
is a good deal of writing about the state of the Cardinals franchise in the
1960’s as well as the rise of the Phillies in the 1970’s from a last place team
in 1972 to the championship 1980 season, even though the pair was no longer
together as McCarver left the team after 1979 and after a brief stop in Boston,
started his broadcasting career in 1980.
If this review sounds like it talks a lot about the
baseball and not much about the two men who are the subject of the book, that
reflects how the book is structured. In
the introduction, Kashatus tells the reader that this will not be a biography
of the two men but instead will focus on the teamwork and results of their time
working together to bring success to both franchises. He certainly succeeded on that goal as the
reader will learn much about the success for both men on the diamond,
especially Carlton. The best chapter in
the book about Lefty is about Carlton’s best season – 1972 when he went 27-10 for
a last-lace Phillies team.
However, that season saw him only work briefly with his
friend McCarver because Tim was traded that season to the Montreal Expos and
did not rejoin the Phillies until 1976, when the battery became even more
productive and was seen by a larger audience as the Phillies won the National
League East division for three consecutive seasons. These seasons are captured as well as 1972 by
Kashatus and readers will learn a little more about stars on that team such as
Mick Schmidt and Greg Luzinski as well as Carlton and McCarver.
While this book is not heavy into details about Carlton and
McCarver, especially their personal lives, it is one that serious baseball fans
of that era will enjoy reading to learn more about the success of a very effective
pitcher and catcher team.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing
a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Links: Amazon.com:
Lefty and Tim: How Steve Carlton and Tim McCarver Became Baseball’s Best
Battery: 9781496226679: Kashatus, William C., Christenson, Larry: Books
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