JOE BUCK

'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 play-by-play work with Fox Sports television.

Contents

Education

Career

Before FOX

Hiring at FOX

''Major League Baseball on FOX''

''NFL on FOX''

''FOX NFL Sunday''

Other notable appearances

Controversy

Personal life

References

External links

Education

Buck was born in St. Petersburg, Florida (where the St. Louis Cardinals, for whom his father broadcast, then conducted their spring training) and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating from St. Louis Country Day School, 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.
Joe Buck also pitched in high school. He was invited by the Cardinals to try out in their minor league farm system.

Career

Before FOX

Buck called play-by-play for the then-Louisville Redbirds, a minor league affiliate of the Cardinals, and was a reporter for ESPN's coverage of the Triple-A All-Star Game. In 1991, Buck did reporting for St Louis' CBS affiliate KMOV. Also in 1991, Joe followed in his father's footsteps by broadcasting for the Cardinals on local television and KMOX Radio, filling in while his father was working on CBS telecasts. In the 1992-93 season he was the color commentator for University of Missouri basketball broadcasts.

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.

''Major League Baseball on FOX''

Main articles: 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 postgame 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!"''

''NFL on FOX''

Main articles: NFL on FOX

Buck became Fox Sports' lead NFL play-by-play man in 2002 (taking over for Pat Summerall), teaming with Cris Collinsworth and Troy Aikman as color commentators and Pam Oliver as the sideline reporter. 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.
Collinsworth left for NBC in 2005. The Fox Sports' lead NFL broadcasting team consists of Buck (play-by-play), Aikman (color commentator) and Oliver (sideline reporter) since 2005.^[1]

''FOX NFL Sunday''

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. 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]

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, as well as the network's first Cotton Bowl telecast in 1999.
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 also 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,
Since 2001, Buck has hosted the "Joe Buck Classic", a celebrity pro-am golf tournament that is played each May to raise money for St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Buck also contributes occasional opinion pieces to ''The Sporting News''.

Controversy

In January 2005, Buck drew fire from Red McCombs, then the owner of the Minnesota Vikings, for his on-air comments during 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 declined to tell.^[3] McCombs asked FOX to prevent Buck from broadcasting other Viking playoff games, a request FOX denied.
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.^[4]
In 2007, Buck was only scheduled to call eight regular season MLB games out of a 26-game schedule for FOX. In an interview with Richard Sandomir of the ''New York Times'', Buck defended his reduced baseball commitment:^[5]

Personal life

Joe Buck has two brothers and five sisters (four of his siblings came from his father's first marriage). Buck has been married to his high school sweetheart, Ann Archambault, since January 23, 1993. They have two daughters together, Natalie and Trudy.

References

1. Collinsworth's move could boost Aikman Michael Hiestand
2. Fox NFL Sunday & the OT return to Los Angeles home in September FOX Press Release
3. A Lambeau tradition? Depends whom you ask Bob Wolfley
4. Joe Buck and Fox Baseball should divorce Curt Smith
5. Is Buck the new Michaels? Paul Sen

External links

★ Bio on Fox Sports website

★ Viewers have no doubt: It's Buck's favorite time of year