"Tim McCarver's Diamond Gems is the modern version of The Glory Of Their Times. It's fun and engaging and instructive and even sweet now and then. Tim could always call the pitches, and he also seems to get everyone to deliver their best stuff here.”
— Frank Deford, author, The Entitled

“Tim McCarver, one of the game’s great storytellers, is also one of the game’s great listeners. Baseball and those who played the game come alive in Diamond Gems.”
— Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Baseball Commissioner

“Diamond Gems gives you the same feeling you get at old timer games, reunions or sitting on the bench before a game. It's more than a book, and the best part is the players said every word with Tim McCarver there to catch it all.”
— Joe Garagiola Sr.

“The many millions of us who have enjoyed and benefited from Tim’s three decades in broadcasting booths are in his debt. And with this book, our debt has grown.”
— George Will, from the Foreword

My baseball career was, to say no more, rather less distinguished. It reached its apogee — and ended, for that matter — more than half a century ago, when I turned 13 and was no longer eligible to play Little League in Champaign, Illinois. There I exhibited mediocrity under pressure for the Mittendorf Funeral Home Panthers whose color was, of course, black.

A few years ago, when I was inducted into the Little League Hall of Excellence in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, the Little League officials made it clear — painfully clear; unnecessarily clear — that I was being honored for achievements after Little League. And not for athletic achievements of any sort. After Little League, my athletic achievements consisted of playing basketball briefly and badly for the University of Illinois High School, which was known in central Illinois athletic circles as Puny Uni.

My two fellow inductees that day in Williamsport were Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Tom Selleck, who before his acting career had been a fine athlete at the University of Southern California. I said I was accepting the Hall of Excellence honor in the name of right fielders everywhere. You know who we are. We are the ones who were sent out to the position where we could do the least damage.

But even — maybe especially — a bad player can appreciate a good student of the game, which Tim has always been. We who could not play the game well could at least excel by trying to understand the game. For people like us, people like Tim are indispensable.

Long ago, catchers' equipment came to be called "the tools of ignorance," but catchers actually are — they must be — among the most cerebral players. From their vantage point in foul territory, they have all the unfolding action in front of them. As a catcher, Tim had a lot of experience not just calling games for his pitchers, but running games for his teams. In an earlier book, the title of which is as effervescent as Tim is ("Oh, Baby, I Love It: Baseball Summers, Hot Pennant Races, Grand Salamis, Jellylegs, El Swervos, Dingers and Dunkers, Etc, Etc, Etc"), he wrote: "In a manner of speaking, the top hitters in baseball don't hit off pitchers. They hit off catchers. It's the catcher who's in there, day after day, ordering up the pitches, and in most instances the pitchers don't shake off their catchers." All of this means that Tim knows the game, and as this volume demonstrates, he knows the questions to ask of those who have played it, or who are still playing.

With the catcher, umpire and batter all sharing a small space on the field, conversations can break out around home plate. It is a good place for the gregarious — think of a talkative catcher named Yogi — and Tim certainly is that. Which is one reason why he is such an extraordinarily engaging television host.

Bruce Catton once said that baseball is the greatest conversation piece ever invented in America. That was quite a testimonial, considering that Catton was a distinguished historian of the Civil War, which has been a pretty durable conversation topic. To fans who follow baseball closely, this much is clear: If the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown had a wing devoted to baseball's best conversationalists, Tim would long ago have been enshrined in the first class.

While playing for the Phillies, Tim caught a famously taciturn Hall of Famer, Steve Carlton. Before that, while with the Cardinals, Tim caught Bob Gibson, the Hall of Famer who rarely balked, but did once when McCarver started out to the mound after Gibson had already begun his motion to deliver the next pitch. Gibson was not amused to glance up and see his catcher approaching. Especially when the ferociously competitive Gibson was at work, he was not, shall we say, the chatty type. But McCarver always has been ebullient, which is why he is such a gifted interviewer. His unflagging enthusiasm for the game is infectious, and he has the indispensable gift of a fine conversationalist: He is a good listener.

Well, sure, who would not listen when the people talking are the guests Tim has had on the television program over the years? Readers of this delightful volume will be, in effect, listening in on fascinating conversations Tim has had with the likes of Henry Aaron, Ernie Banks, Johnny Bench, Yogi Berra, Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, Ralph Kiner, Stan Musial and many others.

When baseball is discussed, numbers are always involved. But of all the most familiar baseball numbers — Ted Williams' .406 batting average in 1941, Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak the same year (the year Tim and I were born), Nolan Ryan's 5,714 career strike outs, etc. — perhaps the number most difficult for fans to fully fathom is the humble number 162, the number of games each team plays in the long season.

The season requires sustained effort, and a sturdy commitment to professional standards. That is why when you ask real baseball people to name the qualities they most admire in players, the quality most frequently named is: consistency. That is why Stan Musial was considered a player's player: He got 3,630 hits, 1,815 at home and 1,815 on the road. Consistency is what makes Tim the broadcast equivalent of Stan the Man. Tim is always at the top of his game. Since he quit playing, his game has been the challenge of making the game — its past, present and future — as intelligible and entertaining as possible for the rest of us.

The many millions of us who have enjoyed and benefited from Tim's three decades in broadcasting booths are in his debt. And with this book, our debt has grown. Fortunately, Tim is a kindly creditor. All he asks in payment is that we continue to join him in his enjoyment of baseball. So turn this page and get to the good stuff — Tim and the unending conversation about the great game.

  — George F. Will

I believe that the show’s popularity with viewers and guests alike is due to my telling whoever is sitting across from me three words: “It’s your show.” My primary goal each week is to make the guest so comfortable that he (or she) feels as free to talk as if he were sitting in his own living room and I was visiting. I never try to elicit any information, explanation, or story from guests that they might be reluctant to talk about. I simply want them to converse about what they feel at ease sharing. That in itself—as you will discover while reading this book— is terrific material that reveals a great deal about them and the sport they love. Of course, homework is essential, as “A” material is offered only to the prepared interviewer, but I’d also like to think that they know that I’m as genuinely interested in what they have to say as the avid viewers at home. It has been rewarding to learn as much as I do from each guest, including people I have known for years.

Often I’m asked if it’s easier to interview someone I have never met or barely know or someone with whom I’ve been friends for years. There’s no comparison. It is much harder to interview someone who I know inside out. For example, over a span covering more than forty- five years, my former Cardinals battery mate and friend Bob Gibson and I have talked about every conceivable baseball situation and gone through every human experience imaginable. So, each time he comes on the show, I worry that he won’t want to open up about certain things because he assumes I already know everything he’s going to say. Fortunately, Bob, like Joe Torre, Jim Palmer, and other longtime acquaintances, continues to surprise me with new revelations. It’s also a joy to let viewers see the funny, intelligent, kind, multidimensional Bob Gibson I’ve known on a personal level, rather than the intimidating competitor they remember from his pitching days.

On my show, it has been exciting and enlightening to have the opportunity to interview athletes in all sports, from football and basketball to skating and snowboarding. But naturally, most guests have come from my sport, baseball. I’ve had the privilege of talking to the late Larry Doby about the discrimination he endured, Cal Ripken about what (actually, who) gave him the character and fortitude to succeed in what I believe was a “quest for perfection,” Yogi Berra about being both a baseball and war hero, Lou Piniella about embarking on a baseball career after flunking a course in square dancing, Willie Mays about his “Catch,” Mike Schmidt about being convinced by Pete Rose that he really was a great player, Earl Weaver and Jim Palmer about their peculiar relationship, and on and on. Even Sandy Koufax appeared on the radio show, a rare occurrence. I knew him well enough to know that he’d relax around me and that, when he’s comfortable, there are few people as erudite about baseball. Koufax trying to find a third pitch to complement his devastating fastball and curve? I had no idea. For me, the beauty of the show is that such nuggets are unearthed with surprising regularity.

Diamond Gems is, I like to think, baseball history, first-person accounts from Hall of Famers and star players and managers that have never been printed before. I have included a treasure trove of personal stories, opinions, and professional insight from more than seventy current and retired baseball players and managers who have graced my show, including all the remarkable individuals I mentioned. As with Sandy Koufax, I try to make them all comfortable under the lights when they make their first and repeat appearances, because I know they have so much to say, as this volume confirms. Just as it is their show, this is their book.

  — Tim McCarver

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