He’s been the guy calling pretty much every big event on Fox since the late 1990’s. Joe Buck has become a regular part of many people’s Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, well you get it. Buck calls the NFL and Major League Baseball for the network, covering the biggest events on the biggest stages. The Super Bowl and of course the World Series.
Busy should be his middle name. During the baseball playoffs, he’s still working his Fox NFL gig, which can also include a Thursday night game. A couple of times in the last decade he’s called his own “doubleheader”. On October 14, 2012, Buck called an NFL game between the Giants and 49’ers in San Francisco, which started at 4:25pm Eastern Time. He then made the 7-mile journey across town via trolley for Game 1 of the NLCS between the Cardinals and Giants.
Buck has also become one of the most polarizing national announcers in recent memory. He is opinionated, sometimes sarcastic and is usually accused of having a bias against, well, pretty much every fanbase in sports. He’s been called a jinx to whatever team it is that a viewer follows. That’s a power many of us in the industry wish we had. Of course, it’s not true.
ROAD TO THE NETWORKS
Buck called play-by-play for the then Louisville Redbirds, a minor league affiliate of the Cardinals. He was a reporter for ESPN’s coverage of the Triple-A All-Star Game in 1989. Buck became a reporter for St. Louis’ CBS station KMOV in 1991, the same year he began broadcasting Cardinals games on local television and on KMOX radio. He would fill in for his father Jack Buck, while the elder Buck was working on CBS telecasts.
Buck continued to call Cardinals games after being hired by Fox Sports in 1994. Though as he got busier and busier with the network job, his local duties shrank. Prior to the 2008 season he announced that he would no longer be calling Cardinals games. It marked the first time since 1960 that a member of the Buck family was not part of the team’s broadcasting crew.
LIFE AT FOX
Buck has been the face and voice of Fox Sports since 1994. He was hired to work the NFL in the inaugural season on the network at age 25. Buck became the youngest person ever to announce a regular schedule of NFL games in network TV history.
He took over as the top play-by-play man in 2002 replacing the legendary Pat Summerall. Buck is only the third announcer to handle a television network’s lead MLB and NFL coverage in the same year. He joins NBC’s Curt Gowdy and ABC’s Al Michaels.
Buck, as mentioned, is also the top guy at Fox on the network’s coverage of Major League Baseball. In 1996, he was named Fox’s lead play-by-play voice teaming with Tim McCarver.
On September 8, 1998, Buck called Mark McGwire’s 62nd home run that broke the single-season record. The game was nationally televised live in prime time on Fox. Not a normal circumstance at all, but the record, at the time, was of huge national interest.
One of the other well-known broadcasts by Buck, included a tribute to his late father Jack. It came during the broadcast of the 2002 World Series. Game 6 between the Angels and Giants came down to an Anaheim comeback in the bottom of the 8th to take a lead on San Francisco. The Angels needed to win to stave off elimination. When the final out of the Angels victory was recorded, Buck said, “We’ll see you tomorrow night.” Buck’s father Jack had passed away only a few months earlier and it was a perfect hat tip to his dad, because Jack said the exact same phrase in 1991. Jack Buck made the original famous call when Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett hit a home run off of Atlanta’s Charlie Leibrandt to end Game 6 of the 1991 World Series.
Through 2020, Buck has called 22 World Series and 21 All-Star Games for Fox, the most of any play-by-play announcer on network television.
WHY IS HE SO GOOD?
For some, being the son of a Hall of Fame announcer would be enough for them to think, I can do this broadcasting thing, my dad did it so why not me? Yes, some get jobs based on their name. But just a few last as long as Joe has, because of one thing. No, not his name. Talent. He’s not his dad, he’s his own guy. As I wrote last summer.
Joe had a difficult time dealing with his dad’s shadow, but learned later that there was no reason to feel that way.
“I was broadcasting Cardinal baseball in the major leagues at the age of 21, and that only happened because my last name was Buck. At the time, I fought that.”, the younger Buck told NPR in 2016. He continued, “But there’s also a little bit more of a sharp knife out there, as far as critics are concerned, that you better be as good as the old man, or in some cases better, to be considered a success.”. Being modest, Joe continued to NPR, “I know I do a decent enough job to keep my job, but I will forever be known to some people as Jack Buck’s son. And thank God he and I were best friends or that would drive me nuts. Instead, I consider it a high compliment.”
To me this is why the younger Buck is so polarizing. Some feel that since he’s not his old man, how can he do this job? Some may feel he’s just on the air because his name is Buck and dismiss him? There are those that don’t like his wit or sarcasm, saying he seems to come off as a know it all or aloof. Whatever the reason, it is a thing, Buck hating is real. There are Twitter accounts dedicated to the practice. Petitions online call for his job routinely. This is broadcasting in a new era of social media. Thick skin is required. Buck proves he’s above it, because here he is, a couple of decades later, still going strong. To know all of that is out there and still be able to do your job at a high level is an extraordinary thing. It’s a testament to his talent.
Buck finds a way to make games exciting. Whether it be a great call in a huge moment or his ability to set the scene for a game that has a lot on the line. It is such a compliment to a broadcaster when you achieve the level of “you know it’s a big game when you hear that voice” and Buck has.
I appreciate the enormity of the job he has, in being expected to get everything right. It’s an awesome responsibility.
CONTROVERSY
Buck has had to deal with some controversy over the course of his career. Several of them have popped up over the last few years, about things he said on air, and things picked up while not on the air.
There was the famous “mocking” of a flyover in Tampa. Before the game started, someone recorded the duo of Buck and Troy Aikman making comments about the planes overhead.
“That’s a lot of jet fuel just to do a little flyover,” Aikman is heard saying in the video.
“That’s your hard-earned money and your tax dollars at work!” Buck replied in a mocking tone.
Buck told the St. Louis Dispatch that he was a fan of military flyovers before sporting events. He also says that what sounded like he and partner Aikman mocking them that weekend was in fact an inside joke and sarcasm that was taken entirely out of context.
“The perception that we’re not supporting the military is crazy,” Buck told the paper. “We were being completely sarcastic. I’ve seen some of the most chilling flyovers you’d ever see. It’s like a communal experience. Flyovers are great.” Buck suspects that someone who isn’t with Fox clipped the audio, packaged it with video that wasn’t Fox’s and then sold it.
Buck, in another recent controversy told Colin Cowherd on his podcast that he and Aikman used to sip tequila mixed drinks on occasion in the broadcast booth during games, and that he liked to nurse “the biggest beer” in the stadium to call baseball.
“I’ll say this. We have had that glass of bourbon in the booth. Although it’s not bourbon, it’s tequila, splash of Grand Marnier and grapefruit juice,” Buck replied. “I went through a couple years where, in the first inning of every postseason baseball game, I had the runner go get the biggest beer that the stadium sold. And I had it sitting there and I would sip it from time to time to remind myself to relax and have fun. I’m just doing a game.”
Buck says the remarks were just a tiny segment in a long conversation. He is not happy about the way it is playing out, leading some people to perceive that he slams drinks during the game — something that never was said.
“It is just another reminder that journalism is indeed dying and clickbait rules the day,” Buck tweeted. “… I am 51, not 15. I believe I am old enough to understand what a drink is.”
He said the drinks were just one of the tricks he has used over the years to calm his mind.
He puts notes to himself on his spotting boards to remind him to put things into perspective.
“The notes on my board ‘have fun’ ‘relax’ are examples from every Super Bowl,” he said. “Texts from friends pop the bubble and are needed during the game. The coffee machine and almost fake trips to it to leave the front of the booth are necessary for me.
HALL OF FAME
For his work over the years in the NFL, Buck is headed to Canton. He will receive the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s prestigious Pete Rozelle Award, given for “longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.” Buck joins his father, Jack Buck, in receiving the award, the first father-son duo to do it.
Hall of Fame president David Baker surprised Buck with the news on a Thursday Night Football broadcast between the Bengals and Browns. Buck will be officially recognized during next summer’s enshrinement week in August, during the enshrinement of the Centennial Class of 2020.
The announcement left him speechless for a moment during the broadcast. “I don’t even know what to say. I feel like – what? That’s unbelievable.”
JEOPARDY!
TV Sports Announcers for $400 please…
This NFL announcer for Fox TV shares a name with a male deer and will also be the host of Jeopardy.
Who is Joe Buck? Correct.
So, Joe Buck is going to appear on Jeopardy! as a guest host. His episodes are set to air in early August. Buck joins a long list of those that are interested in replacing the late Alex Trebek who passed away last year. He joins Aaron Rodgers, former Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings, Anderson Cooper and Mayim Bialik on the roster of potential new hosts for the show.
CONCLUSION
I understand that Buck isn’t for everyone. People seem to enjoy picking him apart for every word, every nuance and every call. Seriously though, the guy has enjoyed a long and successful career, so he’s doing something right. You don’t stick around and perform at a high-level just because you have the same last name as a legendary broadcaster. I enjoy how Buck seems to play off the negativity and turn it into something to laugh about. Deep down, nobody likes to hear bad things about their broadcasts. At the same time, you can’t cave to the trolls and haters, they’re always going to be there, but seemingly so will Buck.
SUMMARY:
Joe Buck is the voice of the NFL and Major League Baseball on Fox and has been at it for a long time. The son of the late Jack Buck, he has carved out his own niche in the industry. Joe Buck has become the soundtrack for some of the biggest sporting events in the last 20+ years. Buck has dealt with controversy and detractors, but it hasn’t affected his longtime grip on the top job at Fox.
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
