Joe Buck

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Joe Buck
Born April 25, 1969 (age 37)
Flag of United States St. Petersburg, Florida
Occupation Sportscaster
Spouse Ann Archambault
Parents Jack Buck and Carole Lintzenich
Children Natalie and Trudy
For the fictional character, see Midnight Cowboy.

Joseph Francis Buck (born April 25, 1969) is an American sportscaster, and the son of the late Hall of Fame sportscaster Jack Buck. He has won numerous Sports Emmy Awards for his work with Fox Sports television.

Contents

[edit] Education

Although born in St. Petersburg, Florida, Buck is primarily a St. Louisan. The Cardinals conducted their Spring Training in St. Pete at the time (and for many years), and his mother would have been there with Jack Buck instead of being in St. Louis.

After graduating from St. Louis Country Day School in St. Louis, Missouri, Buck began his broadcasting career in 1989, while he was an undergraduate at Indiana University. When Buck graduated from Indiana two years later, he received a B.A. in English and a minor in telecommunications.

[edit] Career

[edit] Before Fox

He did baseball play-by-play for the then-Louisville Redbirds, a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, and was a reporter for ESPN's coverage of the Triple-A All-Star Game. In 1991, Buck followed in his father's footsteps by broadcasting for the Cardinals on local television and KMOX Radio.

[edit] Hiring at Fox

In 1994, Buck was hired by Fox, and at the age of 25 became the youngest man ever to announce a regular slate of National Football League games on network television. Legend has it that Buck got his job at Fox in part because of a recommendation from his mother Carole. While at the Super Bowl, Carole Buck apparently collared Fox Sports head Ed Goren and told him "If you're putting together football, you can't do it without Joe!"[citation needed]

[edit] Major League Baseball on FOX

In 1996, he was named Fox's lead play-by-play voice for Major League Baseball, teaming with Tim McCarver, who had previously worked with Joe's father on CBS. That year, he became the youngest man to do a national broadcast for a World Series, surpassing Sean McDonough, who called the 1992 World Series for CBS at the age of 30. McDonough had replaced Jack Buck as CBS' lead baseball play-by-play man after the elder Buck was fired in late 1991.

On September 8, 1998, Joe Buck called Mark McGwire's 62nd home run that broke Roger Maris' single-season record. The game was nationally televised live in prime time on Fox. It was a rarity for a nationally televised regular season game to not be aired on cable since the end of the Monday Night Baseball era on ABC in 1989. While doing a post-game interview with McGwire and his parents, Buck asked for and received a hug from McGwire.

During Fox's broadcast of the 2002 World Series, Joe Buck paid implicit tribute to his father, who had died only a few months earlier (he had read the eulogy at his father's funeral), by calling the final out of Game 6 (which tied the series at 3-3, and thus ensured there would be a Game 7 broadcast the next night) with the phrase, "We'll see you tomorrow night." This was the same phrase with which Jack Buck had famously called Kirby Puckett's home run off Braves pitcher Charlie Leibrandt which ended Game 6 of the 1991 World Series. Since then he has continued to use this phrase at appropriate times.

His low-key statement "St. Louis has a World Series winner.", at the close of the 2006 World Series, echoed a long-time catchphrase of Jack Buck's, at the close of any Cardinals victory: "And that's a winner!"

[edit] NFL on FOX

Buck became Fox Sports' lead NFL play-by-play man in 2002 (taking over for Pat Summerall), teaming with Troy Aikman and Cris Collinsworth. Buck is only the third announcer to handle a television network's lead MLB and NFL coverage in the same year (following NBC's Curt Gowdy and ABC's Al Michaels). By 2002, Buck's Fox duties forced him to cut his local Cardinal schedule to 25 games. Whenever Joe Buck has been on a postseason Major League Baseball assignment, Dick Stockton, who coincidentally was the back-up announcer behind Jack Buck for CBS' baseball telecasts in the early 1990s, would fill-in for him.

On February 6, 2005, Buck called his first Super Bowl, as the New England Patriots defeated the Philadelphia Eagles for their third championship in four years. His father called 17 Super Bowls for CBS television and radio in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

[edit] FOX NFL Sunday

FOX NFL Sunday pregame team beginning in 2006. From left to right is Howie Long, Joe Buck, Terry Bradshaw, and Jimmy Johnson
FOX NFL Sunday pregame team beginning in 2006. From left to right is Howie Long, Joe Buck, Terry Bradshaw, and Jimmy Johnson

.

On August 14, 2006, Buck was named the host of Fox's pregame NFL show FOX NFL Sunday and postgame doubleheader show. According to the Nielsen ratings system, viewership was down for the entire season.[citation needed] FOX announced in March 2007 that Buck would no longer host FOX NFL Sunday in 2007, concentrating on play-by-play for the week's marquee game. [2]

[edit] Other notable appearances

In the late 1990s, Buck hosted a weekly sports-news show, Goin' Deep, for Fox Sports Net cable. He also called horse racing and professional bass fishing events early in his Fox career.

Buck has appeared numerous times on Late Night with Conan O'Brien as a guest. During an appearance prior to the 2006 World Series, Buck was handed a garish necktie that had previously been worn by O'Brien and bandleader Richie "LaBamba" Rosenberg and agreed to wear it for Game 1, a promise that he honored. Additionally, Buck once guest-hosted an episode of the E! network's Talk Soup program.

Buck has appeared in various national television commercials for such clients as Holiday Inn and Budweiser beer. One of the more memorable spots for the latter had Buck goaded into using the catchphrase, Slamma-lamma-ding-dong! (He also does local commercials in the St. Louis market for the Suntrup chain of automobile dealerships.)

Part of Buck's broadcast (with McCarver and Bob Brenly) of Game 5 of the 1997 American League Championship Series could be heard in the background of one of the recordings Linda Tripp made of a conversation between herself and Monica Lewinsky, regarding the latter's affair with then-President Bill Clinton.

On a Season 3 episode of Lost, Ben shows Jack a clip of the last play of the 2004 World Series, and Buck can be heard speaking his famous line,

“ Red Sox fans have longed to hear it: the Boston Red Sox are world champions! ”

Buck also contributes occasional opinion pieces to The Sporting News.

[edit] Controversy

In January 2005, Buck drew fire from former Vikings owner Red McCombs for his on-air comments during a NFL playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers. After Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss simulated mooning the Green Bay crowd in the end zone, Buck called it a "disgusting act." The moon was allegedly an attempt to respond to Packer fans, who traditionally moon the Vikings players aboard the team bus, a fact of which Buck never told the audience.[1] McCombs asked Fox to prevent Buck from broadcasting other Viking playoff games, a request Fox declined.[citation needed]

Buck has also been taken to task by fellow commentators. On a December 17, 2006 NFL game between the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Buck read a blind item on air regarding the Bears' Tank Johnson training dogs to kill. Howie Long took Buck to task on this by asking him, "Training to kill what? Where'd that come from?" Buck did a stammering backtrack and stated he was only reading it.[2][3]

Buck (and to a lesser extent, Fox Sports) has also taken heat for being absent from Fox's baseball broadcasts (despite being their #1 announcer) during the most crucial periods of the season in August and September when he typically calls preseason NFL games for Fox.[citation needed] That criticism, if in fact it has been leveled, presumes that Buck has a choice in the matter of his assignments.

[edit] Famous calls

“ Down the left field line - is it enough? Gone. There it is, sixty-two! Touch first, Mark. You are the new single-season home run king! ”
“ Floater...center field. The Diamondbacks are World Champions! ”
“ Into right center field, Erstad says he has it...the Angels, world champions. ”
“ As Boone hits it to deep left, that might send the Yankees to the World Series. Boone the hero of Game 7. ”
“ Ortiz into deep right field, back is Sheffield, we'll see you later tonight. ”
“ Damon is rounding third, and he can keep running to New York. ”
“ Red Sox fans have longed to hear it: The Boston Red Sox are World Champions. ”
“ Palmeiro, over the head of Jenks...Uribe, charges, throws...out. And the White Sox have won the World Series. ”
“ Picked off, Rodney Harrison, and the New England Patriots are on their way to becoming a dynasty. ”
“ For the first time since 1982, St. Louis has a World Series winner! ”

[edit] Personal life

Buck was born in St. Petersburg, Florida, which was then the Spring Training home of the Cardinals. Buck has been married to his high school sweetheart, Ann Archambault, since January 23, 1993. They have two daughters together, Natalie and Trudy.

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_whatsgoinon/2006/12/bears_power.html
  3. ^ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/dr_z/12/20/power.ranks1/index.html

[edit] External links


Preceded by
James Brown		 FOX NFL Sunday

host (with Curt Menefee)
2006-Present

 Succeeded by
Incumbent
Preceded by
Bob Costas and Al Michaels		 World Series network television play-by-play announcer (concurrent with Bob Costas in even numbered years)
1996-Present		 Succeeded by
Incombent
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