Find Out Who Tim McCarver Regrets Not Spending More Time With (Hint: It Ain't Imus)

Just prior to Tim McCarver’s appearance today, Imus played Jamey Johnson’s version of the Meatloaf song Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad off The Imus Ranch Record II. McCarver, a music fan and Fox Sports analyst, raved about Johnson’s version and observed, “It sounds like the story of the baseball playoffs!"

Both the National League and American League Championship Series begin this weekend, and McCarver and his broadcasting buddy Joe Buck will cover the NLCS for Fox. He predicted a competitive series.

“Two of the great pitchers in the game are going against each other tomorrow night,” McCarver said, talking about Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies and Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants. In fact, Halladay pitched a no-hitter last week, just the second time anyone has done so in baseball’s post-season.

Obviously, Imus had a problem with this assertion. “He walked a guy,” Imus pointed out. “Well, then, that’s not a no-hitter.”

He rationalized his theory to a dumbstruck McCarver by noting that the one player Halladay walked did not have an opportunity to get a hit, because Halladay had not thrown the ball over the plate.

To which McCarver, who seemed unable to believe he was about to utter this sentence, replied, “The Cincinnati Reds did not get a hit. So when you don’t get a hit, it’s a no-hitter.”

Last week, in his first post-season appearance, Lincecum pitched a two-hitter (which, in case anyone is having trouble following, means the opposing team got two hits), leading McCarver to conclude that none of the NLCS games would be particularly high-scoring.

The Phillies are favored to win, but McCarver doesn’t think it’ll be that easy, given the Giants’ “formidable” pitching staff. “I think it’ll turn into a team makes a mistake, an error at the wrong time, a stolen base,” he said. “The Phillies are a very opportunistic base-running team.”

McCarver, it turns out, is much less opportunistic than the Phillies, telling Imus he once turned down an invitation to hang out with Elvis in 1968 at the Las Vegas Hilton because it was three o’clock in the morning.

“It was the worst move I’ve ever made in my life,” McCarver, a Memphis native, said, admitting he thought he’d have another shot to spend time with the King of Rock and Roll.

“That wouldn’t be the case now, would it Tim?” Imus said, lacking any sympathy for his guest.

-Julie Kanfer