I Hate Joe Buck Too
As a kid growing up in St. Louis I was fated to come of age in the 1970’s, just after the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team dominated the sport and before Whitey Herzog became a St. Louis legend by bringing the championship back to St. Louis. Jack Buck, one of the country’s greatest sports announcers ever, called them all – from Lou Brock’s record breaking base stealing to the Ozzie Smith’s home run in the 1985 World Series “Go crazy, folks! Go crazy!” Jack Buck, along with his sidekick Mike Shannon, was the voice of the St. Louis Cardinals, and decades later I can still hear the love of the game and excitement in Jack Buck’s voice as he called games for a pretty sad and mediocre baseball team the Cardinals had become in the 1970’s. Soon after that I left one of America’s greatest sports town, but as I have learned over the years, I may have left St. Louis but St. Louis has never left me. The older I get the more I’ve come to appreciate St. Louis, and although you wouldn’t know it if you met me, I am a die hard sports fan.
Now I live in another one of America’s great sports towns – Philadelphia. And while I still bleed Cardinals red, I have had a deep appreciation for the town that poached Steve Carlton away from the Cardinals, and beat the hapless Football Cardinals (the “Big Red”) mercilessly in the NFL during the ‘70s. Philadelphia has suffered through some bad times; laughable baseball teams, football teams that choke in the stretch, and even a basketball team whose finest hours occurred generations ago. Maybe that’s why it’s been easy for me to pick up a love of this town’s teams. When the Phillies won the World Series, I was just as happy as anyone else and even shot off fireworks in celebration.
I have suffered with Philadelphia Eagles fans as our team started the season with high hopes (some commentators called the Eagles Super Bowl contenders) – only to have the team play some of the worst football one game, and some of the best a game or two later. The team has been wildly inconsistent, losing to the Washington Redskins in a game where the Eagles offense seemed like someone had spiked the Gatorade with thorazine. A week later they beat the Cowboys to the point where even the Wife – hardcore doesn’t begin to describe her love of the Eagles – began to feel sorry for Tony Romo. I just couldn’t; the scars from the thrashing the Big Red suffered at the hands of Roger Staubach’s Cowboys stop me from going that far. The team was all puff and glamour back in the 1970s, and they are even worse today.
Over this season I have come to realize something that native Philadelphia fans have known for awhile: Joe Buck hates Philadelphia. This season most of the games Philadelphia has played have been broadcast on Fox, announced by Joe Buck and Troy Aickman. I thought it was Buck’s passionless, dry style – more Howard Cosell than his Old Man in which his play-by-play has all the enthusiasm of a DMV worker calling out “next” at 4:59 on a Friday. But no, Joe Buck spends more time talking about the Philly opponents than the Philly team. I noticed this first during the baseball playoffs when Buck spoke glowingly about Manny Ramirez while Philly was at bat.
It became downright distracting today. Joe Buck just couldn’t shut up about the New York Giants while the Eagles were moving the ball. Troy Aikman isn’t much better. I realize he was a great quarterback, but his play analysis and commentary is about as insightful to football as mine is on Buzkashi. Perhaps it’s seeing his overrated and overpaid ‘Boys getting the tar smacked out of them by Brian Dawkins and Asante Samuel by the Birds that curbs his enthusiasm.
Either way it’s a shame that sports fans have to suffer with these two. I noticed that when the local Fox affiliate showed a highlight of the game playing on a flatscreen in their studio, the announcer was none other than Merrill Reese, who does play by play on WYSP-FM. It’s taken me this long to figure out that the solution to Joe Buck and Troy Aikman has been right there all along: turn down the volume on the television and turn on the game on the stereo.
Cousin Dave:
Scott, Joe Buck on Fox and Joe Buck doing local commentary for the Cards (on Fox Sports Midwest) are two different animals. He was pretty funny when he did the local stuff. Too bad he dropped that to focus on his national work a few years ago.
Not sure why he hates Philly (or if he actually does), but this isn’t unique. Other announcers who have had to cover the Cards or Rams give off the same vibe, especially the last few years with the Rams being awful. There was a baseball announcer from Milwaukee(?) who used to rip St. Louis — the town, not the team — during games, albeit on that team’s network (I saw it on satellite). This guy was a clown.
Back to Buck, I’m sure he witnessed the fans’ reaction to Scott Rolen when he came back to town (which in hindsight was probably justifiable considering what went on at the end of his time in StL) and may have witnessed the games in which J.D. Drew came “back” to town, including the game he had to duck D-cells. Maybe it’s not the town, but some of the so-called fans. Philly fans do know their reputation elsewhere isn’t great, right?
12 January 2009, 6:51 pmScott Kirwin:
Dave
Philly fans are notorious, although I’ve come to the conclusion that most of their reputation is myth and overblown. And I don’t doubt that there are some announcers who are biased against other cities, especially when it comes to baseball and the Cardinals.
The problem is when you’ve got one of those announcers calling the play-by-play for your team. Fox isn’t going to have one set of announcers calling the game for one team, and another set for the other; it’s too expensive. So you have to find someone who is neutral to call the game for both sides.
But that leads to bland commentary that offends no one but fails to excite anyone either.
I liked Jack Back because he got excited over the Cardinals; if he had to tone down that excitement out of respect for the Cardinals’ opponent he wouldn’t have been Jack Buck.
13 January 2009, 9:20 amJohn Howard Nesbitt, MBA:
Today’s Baseball Announcers: the Good, the Silly and the Buffoonery
10 October 2009, 6:20 pmSince we are now in post season Baseball, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the current state of Baseball announcing (at this glorious time of year). For the record, I grew up in the Tri-State NY Metropolitan area. I watched Yankees games and Met games, on either WPIX (Channel 11) or WOR (Channel 9) and listened as “old school” guys called the games; men such as Ralph Kiner, Lindsey Nelson, Bill White and Phil “The Scooter” Rizzuto (in spite of Rizzuto evacuating the Broadcast booth in late innings in order to beat the west-bound Jersey traffic on the GW and Bill White teasing him about on air—he was still a good Announcer!). These guys were skillful Baseball Announcers. They called Baseball games with great flair, great knowledge, good humility and with an understanding that sometimes, you should just shut up on air! Today’s Baseball (or Football) Announcers don’t know when to be quiet sometime or just plain shut up and let the game “speak for itself”— as if several moments of on air silence during a broadcast is too terrible for the Networks to imagine. One of the sublime beauties of listening/watching Baseball on TV at home, is the majesty of having it on in the background as you putz about the house or yard while doing things, but this unending, inane, and pointless chattering (by today’s Announcers) is roughly akin to the mind numbing aggravation of having a crazy neighbor or ex-wife drop by your house or Condo (unannounced) and you can’t get them to leave!
The worst (and silliest) of the modern Announcing breed might very well be Joe Buck and Tim Mc Carver; I cringed when these two call a game. When this happens, I mute the sound of the game and turn on a smooth Jazz station to accompany my viewing of the game. Their combined garrulousness—particularly Tim Mc Carver’s ad nauseam (and over explaining) dissection of the most routine and obvious of plays—coupled with the corny and silly buffoonery of Joe Buck (who once asked, for example, former Yankee skipper Joe Torre during an “in game” interview to rub the bald head of former Yankee Coach Don Zimmer for good luck, fortunately Torre wisely declined the silly request from the camera hogging Buck) drive me to the mute button every time. Additionally, Buck is no better, in my mind (or ear) at broadcasting NFL games. In all honesty, Joe Buck should listen to tapes of his departed Father, Jack Buck, calling a St. Louis (Football) Cardinals game; he could learn a lot. Today’s Announcers should simply call the game with an economy of words and more importantly, tell us (the viewing Public watching a game) what we do not see (on the screen) about a particular Baseball or Football play! Now that would be something worth listening too—true insight. Finally, I watched a fair amount of night Baseball games this summer with the MLB package I bought and I noticed that some other Announcers such as Kenny Singleton, Dave Cone and Jim Palmer call a game with a minimum of words and tomfoolery.
And while we are talking about broadcasting silliness, could we also do away with the inane Football (during the game) sideline update statements by the female (or male) bimbo-like Announcers; these interruptions add nothing to the enjoyment (or understanding) of the game but rather serve as some silly sort of “face time device” for the Announcers. Cutting away to the Cheerleaders on the sidelines would be a better (and more enjoyable) use of the sideline on-air camera time.
John Howard Nesbitt, MBA
Chicago, Ill &
Jacksonville, Florida
mike giantfan:
why di i, as a giant fan, have to endure troy aiking and joe fuck every game of the year. they hate the giants and jinx them. why cant each nfl team have there own announcers? announcers that pull for there team. i hate troy aiking and joe fuck so much!! they make me not enjoy the only professional team i still watch. its horrible for me. i hope these two men get caught sodomizing each other on national tv. thank you fox sports for ruining my football experience. joe buck should be sucking his dead dads yang for getting him his undeserved job and acclaim.
18 December 2011, 3:54 pm