I got to know Joe Buck for the first time when I was covering the St. Louis football Cardinals training camp at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
I can’t remember the exact year – 1985, maybe 1986, or 1987 – but Joe was working in the Big Red’s camp as an assistant to the equipment staff. Joe was a teenager. I was a young football writer.
A few nights each week, we would convene in my dorm room to play hours of computer baseball on my old Commodore 64.
Joe always chose to manage the Montreal Expos. I would rotate teams. The games were spirited. We had a lot of fun. He was terrific company, just a good dude, and I didn’t even ask Joe to do the play-by-play. Fond memories.
Well, Joe certainly has come a long way since gaming up in those computer baseball tournaments during hot-summer nights in a football training camp in a rural section of Illinois.
Like his revered late father, Jack, Joe is a St. Louis institution. Like his dad, Joe is one of the greatest play-by-play broadcasters of his era in major-league baseball and NFL football. Actually, this would apply to any era of sports broadcasting.
And, like the late-great Jack Buck, the great Joe Buck joins his father as the winner of the Ford C. Frick Award, which is presented annually for excellence in broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
As you probably know by now, Joe has called more World Series and All-Star Games on network television than any play-by-play announcer in history. And he’s still only 56 years old. It’s been an extraordinary and distinguished career for Joe Buck. He’s on the short list of the best and most talented broadcasters to call sporting events … doing it with an admirable combination of precision, knowledge, drama, color, strong opinions, and humor. Joe has the sharp instincts that anticipate a great moment, and he delivers a memorable call that blends the real-time thrill of witnessing something remarkable with a dash of meaningful historical perspective.
Buck spontaneously reacted with a tribute to his late father. “And we’ll see you tomorrow night.”
And the Cardinals won the World Series that next night, and Joe lived up to the moment again.
Joe’s seamless reaction to the Freese-framed drama was repeated, word for word, as a sweet echo of Jack Buck’s call of the walk-off home run struck by Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett to end Game 6 of the 1991 series.
What Joe said that night as the triumphant Freese left the batter’s box was … absolute broadcasting perfection.
It was the best call I’ve heard – ever – in my long life as a sports fan. It meant more to me (and others) because Joe was calling a crucially important Cardinals game in the St. Louis ballpark. He was a St Louis guy, living the dream, and summoning a sentence from the past to make it the capper to his finest professional moment. And this St. Louis guy performed up to the eminent standards established by his renowned and beloved father.
Chills. Just chills.
How can anyone take a seat in a broadcast booth and do this? It isn’t just having a respected and rewarding career. It isn’t just about winning awards and being famous, locally or nationally. But here he was, Jack Buck’s son, going into the same line of work and matching his dad’s excellence.
I can’t comprehend the pressure that came with the gig. Joe didn’t fail. Joe wasn’t an average Joe in the booth. He was good from the start … and from there he got better and better and better … working hard to craft a career so extraordinary that he can proudly sit, metaphorically speaking, shoulder-to-shoulder with his father?
Jack Buck helped give Joe his start in the booth. But for goodness sake, the people who take shots at Joe for his head start are utterly ridiculous. It’s one thing to get an opportunity because of a famous connection. But once you get that chance – pal, you’re on your own. No one else can help you, buddy. So get it done at a high level, or get out and find something else to do fo a living.
The name “Buck” wasn’t a free pass to success or acclaim. That must be earned over thousands of days and nights in stadiums around the nation, around the world. Joe Buck couldn’t fake it. He would either do his job well enough to stay, to become known and to be respected for the quality and the professionalism of his performance. If not, then Joe would become a footnote. Or maybe a trivia question. Whatever happened to Jack Buck’s kid?
Believe me, the knives were out. Oh, so Jack Buck put his son in the booth? Ready, set, go! Joe became a target for many who resented him. Joe easily could have flopped, and become something of a laughingstock, but he had too much talent and pride and professionalism. If anyone still resented Joe after he clearly rose to award-winning stardom and popularity – it was because they resented his immense talent … a level of talent they’d never ascend to.
Joe Buck could have failed. But he didn’t fail. And he didn’t fail because he was Jack Buck’s son. He learned from the master. He had the genes and the DNA and the intangibles that took him this far. He was as talented as his father, but in a different and generational way. And Joe was as tough as his old man, at least in the professional sense. A nationally known, high-profile broadcaster has better bring some throat lozenges and thick skin to the every assignment.
Joe couldn’t fail, simply because of his skills – and because he could never fathom the idea of letting his father down.
The pressure is still there, hovering around Joe, manifesting in personal attacks on social media. Sure there’s some stress, but Joe has handled it very well with humor, self-deprecation, and his occasional flex of Kung Fu Fighting on “X.”
Sure, Joe can be obnoxious, and I say that as one who is reliably obnoxious. But that’s part of his charm, part of his appeal, a layer to his personality that Buck activates at the appropriate time. There’s a maverick inside this man, and Joe just has to let that maverick come out to play.
If pressure was a person, Joe repeatedly kicked pressure’s ass. This, too, is similar to Jack Buck, who could slice you open with a zinger or comedic insult. If you were the recipient, you wanted to check for blood … your own blood. Not literally, of course. But you still had to do a safety check, because Jack left you dizzy as the audience roared in laughter. I personally happen to know about this … and I loved it.
(Timeout: Best insult I ever got hit with? I was speaking at a charity event. Long time ago. Jack was the emcee. I was very nervous and out of my league. I took a swing at being funny in my remarks to the audience … and struck out. I was a large man at the time … still am … and as I made my way back to my seat, Jack Buck turned to watch me stagger and said, “Thank you, Shamu!” in his unmistakable voice. Yeah … as in Shamu the Whale from Sea World. I think I laughed harder than anyone. It was a perfect shot. No one … ever! … was as good as Jack Buck at roasting a fellow speaker in front of an audience.)
As a kid, Joe Buck hung out with his father in the KMOX booth at the “old” Busch Stadium that was next to the site of the current ballpark.
As an adult, Joe is still hanging out with his father. Jack Buck has watched – with great pride and joy – every game that Joe has called. Jack has heard every word that Joe has used to describe the action on the field. Jack has listened to all of Joe’s observations, his robust opinions, and the fun asides during a break in the competition. Jack has the best seat in the house in that broadcast suite in the heavenly clouds. Beaming. Jack Buck is beaming today.
Joe Buck is an eight-time Emmy Award winner. In addition to calling more World Series and All-Star Games than any announcer in baseball history, Joe has been the play-by-play voice for seven Super Bowls. If the world as we know it ever comes to an end, I would pick Joe to do the play-by-play.
In 2020, the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted Joe into the Hall of Fame as the winner of the annual Pete Rozelle Radio-TV award.
That means Jack and Joe are the only father-son combination to receive the most prestigious broadcasting honor awarded by both the NFL and Major League Baseball. Yes. Shoulder to shoulder in Cooperstown and Canton. As it should be. As it was meant to be. That time-honored cliche – he is his father’s son – has never been truer.
Congratulations, Joe.
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015.
Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach.
Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst.
Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues and Mizzou football and basketball.
Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STLSportsCentral, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows.
And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.