Just like his father, he’s widely known. Just like his father, he has achieved sportscasting fame. And perhaps most importantly: Just like his father, he has kept his respect of the path he traveled en route to the top.
Joe Buck, who has done play-by-play of more World Series on network television than anyone and who now is the TV voice of “Monday Night Football,†never has forgotten his roots. Quite the opposite. The lifelong ºüÀêÊÓƵan embraces them, as underscored in an MLB Network documentary on his unparalleled baseball broadcasting career that is set to debut at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“I would not have been broadcasting the Cardinals when I was 21 years old if my last name wasn’t Buck,†he pointedly says on the show as he echoes comments he has made many times over the years about how his father, legendary Cards announcer Jack Buck, poured the foundation for his entry to the big leagues.
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But getting a crack and cracking it open are two vastly different things, and the younger Buck ascended to the pinnacle of his profession in part by not trying to mimic his father.
“The worst thing I could do to myself is to try to be him,†he says. “He just gave me my example, and I’ve tried to do it on my own, in my own way.â€
That’s part of the latest edition of MLB Network’s “The Sounds of Baseball†series, which focuses on legendary voices of the game. Among the episodes has been one on Buck’s father along with other broadcasters with deep ties to the Gateway City — former Cardinals announcers Harry Caray and Joe Garagiola as well as the subject of the edition that made its debut last week, former longtime ºüÀêÊÓƵan Bob Costas.
Costas co-hosts the new episode with Tom Verducci, who worked as an analyst with Buck on the 2014 and ’15 World Series and says this installment in the series “is unlike any other episode. That’s because Joe called 24 World Series, twice as many as anybody else. The trove of great and historic calls is especially deep, from home run records to breaking curses. ... Joe’s unique style and voice were perfect for this era as baseball broadcasting evolved from its radio roots to the visual age.
“Like a great player ... he’s at his best in the biggest moments.â€
In addition to the push from his father, Buck, now 54, has credited “being in the right place at the right time†with his broadcasting longevity in baseball. He was 26 when he got the assignment for Fox in 1996, when the network began showing MLB games including the World Series.
Costas was 43 when he did World Series play-by-play for the first time and marvels at the way Buck handled himself at such a young age on the huge stage.
“I still thought of myself as kind of young for doing that,†Costas says. “He was almost two decades younger, and he still was at a high level of proficiency.â€
After alternating the “Fall Classic†with NBC in the late ’90s, Fox has had it exclusively for the past 24 years, with Buck handling them all until relinquishing the role after the 2021 season. At first, he mixed his Cardinals work with his Fox assignments before eventually giving up the local job to concentrate on his growing national schedule that in addition to the to baseball role evolved into him also being Fox’s lead NFL broadcaster.
But this program is about baseball and Cardinals fans will enjoy calls by both Bucks. Among the clips are calls from each describing Mark Whiten’s historic four-homer, 12-RBI game for the Cards against the Reds in 1993.
It is pointed out that it was an appropriate generational transition from dad’s immensely successful radio-oriented career to son’s television-centric ascension as times changed.
Verducci says of the TV style of the younger Buck: “As broadcasters go, he’s sort of like the Ernest Hemingway. It’s punchy, it’s minimalistic. ... His job he always thought was (to) create the anticipation with few words and let the pictures take over.â€
The first half of the hourlong presentation is heavily laden with the younger Buck’s ties to the Cardinals, at the local and national levels.
There’s a segment on how he honored his dad’s historic “We’ll see you tomorrow night†call when Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett’s homer ended Game 6 of the 1991 World Series to set up the decisive seventh game, with a similar call — in the same situation — when the Cards’ David Freese did the same thing 20 years later almost to the date.
Costas says that call was “perfectly bookending what his dad did.â€
There’s Joe’s description of Mark McGwire’s then-record 62nd home run, hit for the Cardinals in 1998 in what was an epic chase with Sammy Sosa for the historic accomplishment — although now tainted by the haze of the steroid era.
McGwire hit many majestic homers that year but No. 62 was his shortest one, on a line-drive near the left-field foul pole that quickly left the field at Busch Stadium.
Buck’s call:
“Down the left-field line, is it enough? Gone! There it is, 62. Touch first Mark, you are the new single-season home run king!â€
Costas says “from a technical standpoint, that call is really appreciated by me as a fellow broadcaster†not only for the way he handled the ball leaving the yard quickly but also because of the national interest in what would be said at the epic moment. ... He had the presence of mind to throw in the phrase, ‘Is it enough?’ because in that split second, that’s what everyone watching and everyone in the ballpark is thinking. ... Technically that call is very difficult, and he gets a 10†on a scale of 1-10.
Numerous clips from his big national broadcasts are shown, including the Red Sox and Cubs ending long World Series championship droughts. Buck is alongside Tim McCarver, his Fox broadcast partner of 16 years and they had a great rapport.
Verducci calls the pair “almost like dancing partners, the timing is just so perfect. Part of that goes back to Joe’s brevity; he allows room for Tim to shine.â€
Another point addressed in the piece is how Buck’s career has paralleled the growth of social media and its snarky, sometimes outrageous and preposterous comments that often are baseless and anonymous — something his father never had to experience.
“He did a great job of keeping it in its own compartment to the side and not bleeding into the booth,†Verducci says.
Costas sums things up.
“In looking at these clips, I was reminded again not how good Joe Buck is but how great he eventually became and how great he was for such a long period of time.â€
Costas points out that both Bucks are in the broadcasters' portion of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and dad is in baseball’s but son is not.
“It’s a mystery to me how Joe hasn’t joined him yet,†Costas says. “But eventually he will. And what a sweet pair of bookends†that will be.
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