Tim McCarver Believes Climate Change Has Led To More Home Runs (VIDEO)

By Matt Yoder, Awful Announcing

Tim McCarver isn't just a baseball announcer, no, he's also evidently an amateur meteorologist. How else would one explain McCarver dropping this wisdom on an unsuspecting nation during Saturday afternoon's MLB on Fox coverage:

McCarver: "It has not been proven, but I think ultimately it will be proven that the air is thinner now, there has been climactic changes over the last 50 years in the world and I think that's one of the reasons that balls are carrying much better now than I remember. You know, the ball that Ramirez hit out and the ball Freese hit out, I didn't think either one was going to be a home run, yet they made it."

Buck: "So that's your inconvenient truth?"

McCarver: "Well I think they're going to find that out one of these days, yes, I do. That's a theory, but we'll see."

At least Joe Buck was able to wisecrack with the "inconvenient truth" line. McCarver explains this is just a theory, so we'll have to wait for the day when he releases his scientific papers on baseballs flying through a thinning atmosphere over the last fifty years. How could we have missed CLIMATE CHANGE as fundamentally changing the game of baseball amongst steroids, expansion, and the evolution of athletes?

You'll have to forgive me if something doesn't add up though. If climate change leads to more home runs... why would Jose Canseco kill Al Gore?

Shout out to ashoemake for the clip!

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Comments

[Merckx]

05:36 AM on 05/02/2012

Well, there is a lot of time to fill at these games.

[Senior Mason]

10:04 AM on 05/01/2012

One more benefit to a warmer planet :)

[tedhices]

09:42 AM on 05/01/2012

Bob Gibson once said to McCarver during a mound visit "The only thing you know about good pitching is, you can't hit it." That ended the mound visit.

[Blackspeare]

05:24 PM on 04/30/2012

What is more important is that next year when the Astros go to the American League there will be 15 teams in each league which means there will be an inter-league game almost every day. Funny how things change. They had always kept each league to an even number of teams to avoid that situation and made inter-league play, a twice a season occurrence, as something special. Now, it will be special every day! Personally, I think I might like it. I wanna see the Mets play the Red Sox.

[YogiDarwin]

08:37 PM on 05/01/2012

Not to mention the always thrilling Seattle-Miami series.

[Blackspeare]

10:20 PM on 05/01/2012

It all depends on where you live.

[tanya11111]

03:09 PM on 04/30/2012

and I thought it was fluoride.

[ScientistfromtheHood]

01:34 PM on 04/30/2012

For the life of me I can't understand how Tim McCarver continues to land the playoff and World Series gigs on TV. He is annoying and provides very little insight into what is happening on the field. Al Leiter and Ron Darling are much more informative and far easier to listen too.

[FTAC 2001]

12:47 PM on 04/30/2012

Damn....I saw the title and knew it would be McCarver. That guy is crazy.

[shawman65]

12:10 PM on 04/30/2012

Tim has been smokin the herb a little too much. The home run epidemic is obviously a direct result of unfiltered bath water..

[francoisfayette]

11:26 AM on 04/30/2012

We have long accepted the fact that balls fly farther in Colorado because of the rarified air, so if the air everywhere is becoming thinner because of climate change then what McCarver said isn't much of a stretch.

[Blackspeare]

08:11 PM on 04/30/2012

Except he said it!

[IanCarey]

10:53 AM on 04/30/2012

I don't understand what is ridiculous about this. If you go to Denver or anywhere in Colorado the ball carries farther because of the climate, so why is it ridiculous to think that a change in the carbon content of our atmosphere could have an impact as well? In fact there was a really good Sports Illustrated article that went into detail about this theory (climate change is fact not theory, but its impact on baseball is theory) and I don't remember anybody deciding they were crazy.

How changes in our atmosphere affect how far the ball carries is a very legit issue to investigate

[tedhices]

09:47 AM on 05/01/2012

Isn't the argument that climate change is caused by putting CO2 in the air making the atmoshpere denser. The air is thinner in Denver not thicker.

[BeBop33]

10:36 AM on 04/30/2012

he would know...McCarver is the single biggest source of hot air and greenhouse gases on the planet...

[Blackspeare]

08:12 PM on 04/30/2012

Now, now----play nice!

[bmwracer]

09:46 AM on 04/30/2012

McCarver must've been beaned in his playing days... More than once.

[GoodDog0325]

09:38 AM on 04/30/2012

It's one man's opinion. A theory. Maybe he's right.

[brody88]

11:06 AM on 04/30/2012

It's a scientific fact that balls fly farther in warm air than cold air simply based on the density of the air.

I'm not saying I agree, but his theory is not as "off base" (sorry for the pun) as most seem to imply on here.

[AFMatt55]

03:04 PM on 04/30/2012

Except that in order to see a 1% reduction in drag you need about a 5°F increase in temperature.

If temperature were that important we should see a lot more home runs in the summer compared with the fall. We should also see more home runs during afternoon games compared with evening games. I don't think the statistics show this.

[Rich Sellers]

09:36 AM on 04/30/2012

Considering the total number of home runs hit annually has been steadily and significantly DECREASING over the past 10-12 years.....it that an indication that we are on the verge of another ice age - like we were warned about in the 70's??

[brody88]

11:05 AM on 04/30/2012

Decreasing?!?! What's your source?

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hihr6.shtml

This isn't the most up to date, but it shows 1990-1999 the average home runs per year was 4,134.9 while 2000-2007 the average was 5,278.5

[bcwarp]

09:20 AM on 04/30/2012

Why do TV announcers and analysts need to talk so much? It's not radio.

[Rich Sellers]

09:36 AM on 04/30/2012

they are trying to justify their salaries.

[Blackspeare]

08:17 PM on 04/30/2012

Some of them are pretty good and give some color to the game like Gary Cohen for the Mets and Dan Shulman at ESPN's Sunday night game. But the best was Jon Miller.