Joe Buck was born and bred in St. Louis and still lives there. Cardinals fans are up in arms over comments Joe made to our Ed Sherman in the Chicago Tribune that calling the Chicago Cubs in the World Series would be the highlight of his career.
And he went even further:
“When people say, ‘What’s the one thing you want to do?’ that’s my answer: Cubs in the World Series,” Buck said. “I don’t want to do an NBA Finals or a Kentucky Derby or moderate a presidential debate, as if that would happen. I want to sit at Wrigley Field, look out and know that a World Series game is about to start. It would be the cherry on top.”
Having grown up the son of legend Jack Buck, St. Louis residents feel they know him. Buck began his broadcasting career by calling games first with his dad and later on Fox Sports Net. But as Buck has become the Voice of Fox Sports by calling MLB, NFL and the U.S. Open, he’s gone in a totally different path than his dad who did national work with ABC, CBS and NBC, but remained as the Voice of the Cardinals throughout his career.
St. Louis sports fans feel Buck is one of them and should hate the Cubs as much as they do. So when the comments came to light, Redbirds fans flocked to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s website and came out in force:
“Buck said that to the Chicago fans because he’s a hack and a sellout who is only in it for the money.”
“Stupid comment Joe. Disappointing to dad.”
“No way he is Jack Buck’s kid! I think he forgot where he came from.”
Buck explained to the Post-Dispatch that he’s in a similar position as when he got to call the 2004 Boston Red Sox’s World Series Championship in 2004, their first in 86 years:
“This has nothing to do with the Cardinals. Zero,” Buck said Thursday. “It has to do with an opportunity that nobody has had in the history of television … let alone an organization that is beloved and hasn’t won the whole thing since before World War I.
“To anybody who has an issue with somebody saying that, I would say, ‘If you were given tickets to go, would you go? If it was on TV, would you stop and watch it?’ I think the answer’s probably yes, because of the significance of it.”
The closest Buck has come to calling a Cubs World Series was in 2003 when they were five outs from winning the National League Championship Series, but then things went south and there’s no need to rehash what happened.
And Buck said he understands that some St. Louis fans still see him as Jack’s son and nothing else:
“I think some people are always going to see me as the little kid that got his chance with the Cardinals and got in on his dad’s coattails in this town,” he said. “I understand that, but it’s been a long time since 1991. I think some people, for obvious reasons, look at me as the son of the success story and somebody who was beloved in this city. And I respect that more than anybody here realizes.
“But I look at it from a different perspective and when I was saying that to the Chicago Tribune, that was said as a baseball fan. That was not said in any way having anything to do with St. Louis. Any baseball fan would jump at the chance to go to see, let alone call, a World Series at Wrigley Field on television — which never has been done. And that’s where it comes from.
“But I get it. I get why people feel that way. To a certain amount of people in the city, no matter what I say their (opinion) isn’t going to change.”
At least Buck is not being run out of town, but as fans wear their passion on their sleeves, they sometimes don’t see the forest from the trees and perceive what they want to perceive.
[Chicago Tribune/St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
