Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 7, 1990 TAG: 9007070468
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK TV/RADIO SPORTS COLUMNIST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
This is how much of America has witnessed the excellence of Jack Buck. Buck is one of those voices that cuts through the darkness of a summer night, drowning out the crickets. Since 1954, with the exception of one year, he has been calling St. Louis Cardinals' games on KMOX Radio. Although he was born in Holyoke, Mass., his comfortable sound is distinctly Midwestern.
While some have yakked their way to glamour and $2 million salaries, Buck has become a sportscasting legend without becoming a household name. His work is about quality and endurance. And now, at an age when most retire, Buck is adding to his 400,000 frequent flyer miles with his highest-profile assignment.
Buck, who was inducted into the broadcasting wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987, is the primary baseball play-by-play voice for CBS Sports. On Tuesday, he will be in the Wrigley Field booth for the All-Star Game (at 8 p.m. on WDBJ-Channel 7 in the Roanoke viewing area). In October Buck will work one of the league championship series and then his first World Series on television.
He deserved to get there in better fashion. Buck was slated to be CBS' backup game caller, but when Brent Musburger was fired 13 days before the TV opener, Buck moved up. Then, it was assumed that Al Michaels, in a contract dispute with ABC, would switch networks and get the job alongside analyst Tim McCarver. Michaels stayed at ABC for $2.5 million a year.
Buck did just what he's always done. He kept working.
"The beauty for me was I was in a good spot no matter what happened," Buck said from his St. Louis home one day last week. "Until I got the original offer from CBS, I was looking for a way to pare down my schedule. I was content. And I was very flattered when CBS offered me the [backup] job.
"I don't know if this is true or not, but I've been told Musburger recommended me for the job. I was even told Brent told them he was willing to let me be the No. 1 guy, and he'd do the other game. Whatever, here I am."
Buck, 65, has gotten most of his national exposure on CBS Radio's coverage of Monday night NFL games, the Super Bowl and the World Series. Buck and NFL analyst Hank Stram have been a strong pair since 1978, but they won't get together this season until late October. Baseball takes precedence for Buck.
Buck and McCarver - whose St. Louis playing days as a catcher were described by his new partner - seem destined to form a different duo with similar success. Buck said that when working with Stram, his play-by-play often takes the form of a quarterback-receiver relationship with the ex-NFL coach. Buck and McCarver, although both love to talk baseball, aren't always delivering the same pitch.
Buck and McCarver worked two April games, then CBS skipped seven baseball Saturdays before resuming its 16-game schedule. "I learned a lot about Tim and his work," Buck said about the hiatus.
"One thing I learned was that sometimes I have to stop my play-by-play and let Tim do his thing, and then come back in and pick up the play-by-play on the tail end of his remarks.
"What I found out and thought about was that Tim and I are rather autonomous. It was a bit awkward until a couple of weeks ago. Sometimes, it was almost like we were working on an island. I've been in the situation a lot where my play-by-play has led the analyst in a certain direction. Maybe that's because I've worked with a lot of newcomers to the business, as they broke in."
Buck said the teaming with McCarver has brought about an on-air style that can be compared to the star CBS pro football team of Pat Summerall and John Madden.
"Sometimes John will take off on something, and then Pat comes back with the play-by-play," Buck said. "There's not always that back-and-forth.
"Tim isn't one of those guys who has to look for things to say that are pertinent. In that case, he doesn't need me. Yes, sometimes we don't agree, and it's good to have different opinions and get people thinking. But someone has to win an argument. What we have are friendly disagreements, based on the rules of the game."
This isn't the first time Buck has done the Saturday network baseball telecast. He left the Cardinals' network for one season, 1960, to work the "Game of the Week" for ABC. To put Buck's on-air longevity into perspective, consider that his first season in the KMOX booth in 1954 was the last playing year of another veteran baseball broadcaster of note, Joe Garagiola.
Vin Scully, who joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950, is the only broadcaster who has spent more time with one club than Buck. When Buck came to the majors in 1954, his first broadcast partner was Harry Caray. Garagiola joined that team the following year.
Buck, the son of an Erie Railroad man, had no inkling on his future when he was attending high school in Cleveland.
"I did win the war," said Buck, a staff sergeant who received a Purple Heart in World War II for a hit he took at Remagen Bridge. When he returned home, he was working as a crane oiler when he "ran into a guy who needed a roommate at Ohio State, so I went with him."
Three years later, Buck had a degree. One year out of college, he started doing minor league broadcasts in Columbis, Ohio, then did a year of local TV in Columbus with Jonathan Winters. After two years, he spent the 1953 season in Rochester, N.Y., before getting the Cardinals' job.
Buck and his wife, Carol, have eight children, ages 18 through 40. He doesn't see much of them during the season.
"A couple of weeks ago, I told my wife, `I'll see you in November,'" Buck said.
He was in Toronto on Friday night, preparing for Saturday's CBS telecast, when the Cardinals were no-hit by Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers.
"The way the Cardinals are playing it's nice to be gone every week." he said. "It's easy to figure out what the problem is. We're terrible."
That's the Buck fans know from those midsummer nights . . . a Cardinals man, a baseball man. Baseball has always been great on radio because of broadcasters like Buck. It's nice to be able to see what he's talking about now, too.
Keywords:
PROFILE
by CNB