Joe Buck, the multipurpose Fox sports broadcaster, has called almost every World Series for the last two decades, beginning with the revival of the New York Yankees dynasty in 1996. Ever since, he has been criticized for banality, bias, and boredom, or as I like to call them, the triple Zzz’s. Maybe that’s just the nature of the national pastime. But as play-by-play man in Super Bowl 42, Buck described a once-in-an-epoch reception by Giants reserve David Tyree as if he were performing on Iggy Pop karaoke night. Never have periods been so appropriate to punctuate a transcription. (“Eli Manning stays on his feet … airs it out downfield … it is … caught by Tyree. Inside the 25, and a timeout taken.”) In a stunning career turn, Buck was assigned to start commentating golf a couple of years ago.
But the negative feedback has become excessive, to the point of wild. Consider this tweet from Buck in August 2013: “Getting ripped for my ‘biased’ calls for AND against [the] Yankees in today’s game. Only problem is I’m not doing the game.” Pity the therapist who had to ask his new patient, “So you say you’ve been hearing voices in your head?”
The smack has continued unabated into this year. With Cleveland participating in its first Fall Classic since 1997, when the games were carried by NBC, fans began a petition to have voice of the Milwaukee Brewers Bob Uecker, play-by-play man for the fictional Indians in the Major League movie franchise, take Buck’s place. And somebody is so convinced that Buck has a man-crush on Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Schwarber that they created a mock wedding registry for the two at Bed Bath & Beyond. As an FYI, the Nevaeh tea pot was in limited quantity as of Friday afternoon. Have a heart. Don’t deny Buck his caffeine. After all, you probably think he needs it.
Really, though, he doesn’t. Buck is an easy target because of his self-deprecating manner, and he’s capable of taking one on the chin; here’s a guy who received a beat-down from comic Artie Lange on the pilot of his own HBO show, endured the program’s cancellation after just three episodes, and still wrote the foreword to Lange’s book a few years later. But this year of all years, it’s not like he deserves it. Just a few weeks ago, one of the all-time greats, Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, delivered his final call before the club’s home supporters. Fittingly, it was a game-winning homer for the good guys—and typically, the raucous crowd did more of the commentating than he did. Talk to any fan (everyone) who enjoyed his calls—particularly those who protest overwrought TV personalities—and they’ll praise him for the way he didn’t make himself the center of attention. He knew he wasn’t the story.
Has Joe Buck ever broadcast a game any other way? In 2011, he was on hand for what is considered by many to be the greatest World Series tilt of all-time: a do-or-die game six for the St. Louis Cardinals, his hometown team—talk about an opportunity for bias or “homerism”—against the Texas Rangers. The Cards overcame deficits just a strike from ending their season twice, and each time, Buck called the moment with restraint. The spectators in St. Louis’s Busch Stadium, of course, were anything but restrained.
Then came the bottom of the 11th inning. Cardinals third baseman David Freese saw a 3-2 pitch and bid it adieu over the center field fence. Short of a home run to win it all—which has happened twice in history—it was the greatest post-season dinger to have ever been struck. It was tied, however, for the best homer to have staved off elimination—tied with the one his dad, Jack, called in 1991, when the Minnesota Twins’ Kirby Puckett sent his team’s series against the Atlanta Braves to a game seven. “We will see you tomorrow night,” the elder Buck said as Puckett’s ball passed over the outfield wall in left-center.
“We will see you tomorrow night,” his kid echoed 20 years later as Freese’s shot landed in the grass beyond center field. The fans said the rest.
C’mon. You can’t hate on that.
