As it turns out, this World Series, whether it goes four, five, six or seven games, will be known for one thing among sports media geeks at least.

Tim McCarver is retiring from network baseball announcing after this World Series.

For those too young to remember: McCarver was a catcher for the Cardinals (his backup: Bob Uecker), Phillies, Expos and Red Sox from 1959 to 1980. (The Cardinals brought him directly to the big leagues after signing him because of the rules for players receiving what passed for large bonuses at the time. He retired and then briefly unretired in 1980 to be a four-decade player after he had already started announcing.)

After a couple of cameo appearances for NBC, McCarver worked the 1984 National League Championship Series as ABC’s backup-team analyst. He wasn’t scheduled to work the 1985 World Series in the booth, but Howard Cosell’s book I Never Played the Game and its criticisms of Cosell’s employer got Cosell removed from the Series (and eventually fired on TV, though he worked for ABC Radio for several years afterward), and McCarver replaced him on the World Series, delighting TV critics.

McCarver worked for ABC until 1990, when ABC lost the baseball contract to CBS. CBS hired McCarver and even had him co-host the 1990 Winter Olympics (which was not really his forte).

Then CBS lost the baseball contract to Fox after the 1993 season. So, similar to John Madden moving from CBS to Fox after CBS lost the NFL, McCarver went to Fox. And there he’s been, having now announced 24 World Series, more than any other announcer — more than Curt Gowdy (1966-1975), Tony Kubek (12 between 1968 and 1982), and Mel Allen (22 between 1938 and 1963).

McCarver has gotten increasing criticism over the years, as has his partner, Joe Buck. (Whose father, Jack, worked with McCarver at CBS.) Part of the reason is probably those 24 World Series he’s worked. Gowdy got criticized toward the end because he was on every big NBC sports event — the World Series, the American Football League and then NFL (and thus playoffs and Super Bowls), and the first few NCAA men’s basketball championships NBC carried — as is Buck, who is on Fox every week from the start of the baseball season until the end of the NFL playoffs. McCarver has also been criticized for overexplaining and talking too much.

Still, though, it’s an accomplishment to be part of anything for 54 years, which totals McCarver’s career from a 17-year-old Cardinal catcher to an announcer of a World Series involving, fittingly, the Cardinals. (Though McCarver, who has done local announcing all this time, may still do that.) I’d rather have an announcer who’s too critical than a vanilla announcer who isn’t critical enough.

In addition to being one of the few announcers to work with a father and son, McCarver will work game 4 Sunday opposite his former ABC partner, Al Michaels, who at the same time will be calling the Packers-Vikings game for NBC.

Awful Announcing passes on MLB.com‘s tribute to McCarver.