In Game 4 of the 1997 American League Championship Series, on a wild pitch with runners dashing around the bases, when Merrill gestured to where the ball was, Fox color commentator Tim 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.