COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – Major League Baseball is mourning the death of a journeyman player who later became a Hall of Famer as a broadcaster.

Tim McCarver, who played 21 seasons in the league and won the Ford C. Frick award as an analyst, died this week at the age of 81. The announcement was made by the Baseball Hall of Fame on Thursday.

The native of Memphis, Tennessee was a two-time All-Star catcher and two-time World Series champion with the St. Louis Cardinals, with whom he spent the majority of his 21-year career.

Later generations will remember his time as a broadcaster, which began in 1980 when he was in his final year as a player. He would later call contests on all four major networks, starting on NBC that first year and then with ABC & CBS in the 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s.

In 1996, he started with Fox Sports and would remain with that network through 2013, where he was paired often with play-by-play announcer Joe Buck. He would continue analyst work with the Cardinals’ local telecasts before officially retiring in April 2022.

McCarver won the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012.

McCarver called his fair share of Cubs and White Sox games through the years on all the networks. His most historic Chicago calls came in October of 2005 when he was paired with Buck for the White Sox American League Championship Series against the Angels and the World Series against the Astros.

The club won both of those to capture their first championship in 88 years.

During ABC’s coverage of the Cubs’ appearance in the 1984 National League Championship Series, McCarver served as the field reporter. He was at Wrigley Field when the home team picked up their first playoff victories in 39 years, but the Cubs were eliminated from the playoffs after three-straight losses in San Diego.