While covering the Mets, McCarver criticized Darryl Strawberry for staying in the same place in the outfield regardless of the hitter at bat. He often said Strawberry would make more outs if he made some adjustments. Then-Mets manager, Davey Johnson responded, saying that Darryl sees the ball come off the bat best in that spot and anywhere else, he cannot read the ball well, and any advantage will be lost because he will misplay it.
During the 1992 National League Championship Series, he criticized Deion Sanders, who also had become an NFL star, for playing both sports on the same day. For his criticism, Sanders dumped a bucket of water on McCarver three times while he was covering the National League pennant winning Atlanta Braves' clubhouse celebration for CBS. After receiving the water, McCarver shouted at Sanders, "You are a real man, Deion. I'll say that."[5] Also during the 1992 post-season (when McCarver worked for CBS), Norman Chad criticized McCarver in Sports Illustrated by saying that he's someone who "when you ask him the time, will tell you how a watch works," a reference to McCarver's habit of over-analyzing.
In Game 4 of the 1997 American League Championship Series, on a wild pitch with runners dashing around the bases, when umpire Durwood Merrill gestured to where the ball was, McCarver sarcastically commented that "maybe he was trying to tell himself where the ball is!" Merrill heard about that, took offense to it, and fired back in his autobiography that he was letting the other umpires know that the situation was under control.
When rule questions came up during a broadcast, McCarver misstated a rule. After a St. Louis Cardinals balk in Game 4 of the 2006 NLCS, McCarver explained, "You have to have 'one thousand one' when coming to a stop, and you have to stop your glove in the same place every time in front of your body," when the rules state that there must be merely a complete discernible stop anywhere in front of the pitcher's body; no certain duration or location is necessary.[6]
McCarver has been known to make verbal gaffes, particularly with player's names (notably confusing Albert Pujols with the retired Luis Pujols, as well as repeatedly referring to Bronson Arroyo as "Brandon Arroyo" during the 2004 World Series). Recently, in the 2009 World Series, he referred to New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter as "Jerek Deter" and in the 2012 NLCS, he referred to St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Daniel Descalso as "Daniel Delkasco." During Game 6 of the 1996 World Series at Yankee Stadium, a fan behind home plate held up a sign that said "John 3:16". McCarver made mention of this sign, saying that the fan was a true Yankees fan because he knew Tommy John's career ERA. John's career ERA is actually 3.34, not 3.16. In 2006, Family Guy lampooned McCarver's broadcasting ability with the quip, "...well, at least he couldn't be any worse than Tim McCarver is at sportscasting." To make matters worse, during the 2011 World Series, Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated argued that McCarver was becoming more and more useless as an analyst.[7] McCarver has in general, been accused of overanalyzing situations, being too verbose, and not allowing a game to breathe.[8]
In October 2008, just before the 2008 NLCS, McCarver made public his feelings about Manny Ramirez, calling him "despicable" and criticizing Ramirez for his perceived sloppy, lazy play in Boston and how he had suddenly turned it around in Los Angeles. Ramirez declined comment.[9]
In 2010, he compared how the New York Yankees treated former manager Joe Torre to how Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia treated its generals, a position he was later forced to apologize for.[10]
