Fox announcer Joe Buck’s misidentification of U.S. Open winner Brooks Koepka’s girlfriend Jena Sims as his ex-girlfriend Becky Edwards was one of the funnier broadcasting bloopers recently, even with Buck later playing it down by saying “I’ve done way worse things than this…before the age of Twitter and clickbait.” Funnily enough, we now have a follow-up to this story, as Koepka was at the MLB All-Star Game Tuesday, and decided to visit Buck and company in the booth:
Brooks Koepka came to the booth to personally tell me who he is with tonight at the All Star Game. He is thorough. pic.twitter.com/nwnIEExRka
— Joe Buck (@Buck) July 11, 2017
There seem to be no hard feelings, judging by Koepka’s tweet:
Play ball! ⚾️ #ASG pic.twitter.com/btQzoBZwaN
— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) July 12, 2017
And Buck wasn’t necessarily wrong to later downplay the mistake. They got bad information (Koepka’s Wikipedia still had his ex listed, as did other sources), and did eventually correct it on air (albeit several minutes later). Who an athlete is dating isn’t the most important story in the world, either. But it was an embarrassing moment for Fox.
It’s interesting to see that Koepka (second from left above) doesn’t seem to hold a grudge about it, though, and it’s good that Buck is able to laugh at himself, from this tweet to mentioning other on-air mistakes he’s made (including calling former MLB infielder Tony Womack’s wife his mother) to telling stories of his bad experience with marijuana to appearing in Brockmire and uttering some rather graphic lines. That self-awareness and self-deprecation is part of Buck’s growth as a broadcaster, and it’s why many of us view him more favorably than we used to. Keep it Brockmire, Joe.
