The much-ballyhooed return of Joe Buck to a Cardinals local broadcast was a washout in the end, as the scheduled game against the Chicago Cubs on Friday night was postponed because of weather-related issues.
But it wasn’t called off until about an hour and a half after the scheduled first pitch, and the way Bally Sports Midwest’s telecast filled the bulk of that time was a disappointment for many tuning in not only for Buck’s homecoming to his career roots but to hear him work with BSM lead Cards broadcaster Chip Caray. The idea was to rekindle some of the glory days in all of baseball broadcasting history, an era in which Caray’s grandfather Harry Caray worked with Buck’s dad Jack Buck calling Cards contests on radio for all but one year from the mid-1950s through the ’60s.
While they did reminisce on the pregame show and had more interesting banter for about half an hour after BSM went to what was supposed to be its game coverage, that talk abruptly ended.Â
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How did Jack Buck and Harry Caray get their starts in baseball broadcast?
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW)
Joe: "My dad would read his dad the sports page. That's how he developed his voice."
Chip: "Loved the game. Loved the sport. Somehow, through force of personality, got involved with radio."
After a series of commercials, viewers were switched to typical rain-delay canned filler programming — all non-Cardinals related. There were interview shows with former ballplayers Andre Dawson and Tom Glavine sandwiched around a program about sports cards collecting.
That was despite Buck having said earlier in the week when discussing the possibility of a rain delay and a potential wealth of pertinent replacement material: “If there ever was a night for one …â€
Caray returned for a brief update from Busch Stadium at one point in the filler-fest and said he and Buck were enjoying a cold frosty Budweiser, a line his grandpa used, and were “telling wonderful tales of days gone by.â€
So why weren’t those tales being told on the air instead of off camera? Wasn’t that one of the main points of bringing back Buck, who last did a local Cards telecast in 2007 before turning his full attention to his now-elite national sportscasting career?
BSM wanted to save some of that material for the game broadcast — had the game actually begun — so that proverbial bucket wouldn’t have been emptied if the conversation had continued throughout the delay. Bally also didn’t want the guys to have to be talking for five or more hours in a row had the contest been played.
But again the point of the night was to hear these two, and both have called doubleheaders before and marathon single games. Plus, had that bucket been emptied and the game was played, they could have focused entirely on the field and teams and maybe the state of baseball in general if they had exhausted their personal material. That would have been even more of a throwback to what their family predecessors did with profound success for a decade and a half.
Caray, however, was OK with not having a long focus on the family ties, though he did feel bad for the production people who did not get in all the elements they had created.
“We gave it a shot,†he said. “But a Buck-Caray palooza (for that long) could have gotten tiresome.â€
He said it would have been better to reflect on the heritage “during natural moments in the game†instead of during extended rain-delay coverage.
But in the time the two were on the air together, they were highly entertaining and informative. It was a field of gold that quickly was shuttered.
Chip Caray on carrying the legacy of Harry Caray and Jack Buck: "I get chills listening to those guys do their thing. ... Hopefully we're carrying the torch proudly for them."
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW)
Ahead of the call, Chip and give us their best Harry & Jack impressions.ðŸ˜
Buck told a story about his dad becoming interested in broadcasting at a young age. Jack’s father had poor eyesight, so Jack would read him stories from a newspaper’s sports section.
“That’s how he developed his voice and his love of talking about sports,†Joe said.
Caray discussed his grandpa being an orphan who grew up in ºüÀêÊÓƵ loving baseball and “got involved with it somehow, someway. And someway through force of personality got involved in radio and somehow got involved with the Cardinals.â€
BSM also put together a that was written by Bryan Schapiro, edited by Krystal Hall and narrated by Rick Powers. Bally liked it so much that it aired it twice — at the opening of the pregame show and what was supposed to be the start of the game telecast, with the reasoning that more people usually are watching when the game is about to start then at the beginning of the lead-in show.
All in all, what viewers got was fine fare when Caray and Buck actually were on the air, with BSM general manager Jack Donovan calling their interactions “great.
“It lived up to expectations†he said. “Fans enjoyed hearing Chip and Joe talk baseball, broadcasting and family history. Chip and Joe were tremendous. And our producer, Bryan Schapiro, did great work. The rainout was a big disappointment.â€
As Joe Buck () explains, Jack's relationship with Harry Caray evolved over time: "A joy to behold. They loved each other dearly. They have so many common and shared memories. To see the way they got along at the end of their lives was just something beautiful."
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW)
No argument there. However, all the canned and unrelated programming put as much of a damper on the party as did the long delay. But it did whet the appetite for a return engagement for Buck. He could be rescheduled, and was philosophical about the turn of events Friday night.
“Life (and weather) is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,†he posted on social media. “What a fun night at the old ballpark anyway. Thanks to Chip Caray and the crew at Ballys for the wonderful welcome back. Maybe we find another date. Either way it felt special.â€
In closing the presentation, Caray had a great line alluding to the famous “We will see you tomorrow night†companion calls on national television by the elder and younger Bucks on game-ending home runs in Game 6s of the World Series nearly 20 years apart to the day that forced Game 7s. Jack's was on Kirby Puckett’s shot for Minnesota in 2001, Joe's was on David Freese’s blast for the Cardinals in 2011.
“We will not see you tomorrow night,†Caray said.
BSM did not have Saturday’s contest, which was a Fox regional telecast. At least skies were clear for that one that proceeded without any weather delays and was a scintillating back-and forth contest the Cardinals won 7-6 after scoring four runs in the eighth inning to take a three-run lead then barely hanging on to prevail.Â
Now that would have presented the ideal canvas for the family affair.