As a part of the Baseball Hall of Fame's induction weekend, Joe Buck received the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting. It's an award his father, the legendary Jack Buck, was presented in 1987. Jack Buck is also a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's broadcasting wing. As is Joe Buck. They're the only father & son pair that have both been selected to both Hall of Fames. (And Joe, of course, is far from done. He'll call the Super Bowl this season.)
It was a deserved honor for Joe Buck. I know he wasn't everybody's cup of tea, but you don't call 24 World Series (22 of them consecutively) by accident. In football, he's widely acknowledged as one of the best in the business, generally ranking either first or second behind only Mike Tirico in "best play-by-play man" polls. It's a shame that he never got his proper due for baseball until he moved to ESPN and starting doing football exclusively. Because he was one of the best in the business at calling baseball, too.
My biggest issue with Joe Buck has nothing to do with him as a broadcaster. It has to do with the reaction people had to him, especially early in his career. There were way too many accusations of nepotism, which is as unfair as it is insulting. It also couldn't be further from the truth. Because being Jack Buck's son might've gotten him in the door. But that's all it did. Everything else was because of his talent.
There's no denying that being Jack Buck's son gave him an inherent advantage. He's the first one to admit that. But that "advantage" can be interpreted in multiple ways. Because Joe also got to learn the trade by watching his father, invaluable experience that he's carried over into his own career. He learned how to do the job from Jack, just like any other son who follows in his father's footsteps learns their profession. Jack and Joe Buck's family business just happens to be a little different and a little more public than everybody else's.
What annoys me the most about it, though, is how Joe Buck is seemingly the only son of a famous broadcaster singled out for nepotism. Where are the same complaints about Kenny Albert? Or Noah Eagle? No one questions either of their talent or credentials, and no one should've questioned Joe Buck's either. Because just like Joe Buck, Kenny Albert and Noah Eagle have forged their own careers that have nothing to do with their fathers.
Kenny Albert is perhaps the most versatile play-by-play man there is. He's the lead national voice for the NHL On TNT, as well as the Rangers' local announcer on MSG. He's also filled in for Knicks games on MSG. And, let's not forget, NBC's lead Olympic hockey commentator (while also having covered various other sports at the Olympics). He also has a weekly assignment for the NFL On FOX and has also covered baseball for FOX. None of that has anything to do with his being Marv Albert's son.
Noah Eagle, meanwhile, is a rising star in the profession. He's the No. 2 NBA play-by-play man for NBC, as well as their lead announcer for the WNBA and the Big Ten Saturday night game. He'll also be heading to Australia to call the Rams-49ers season opener for Netflix and has called the French Open for TNT. Noah Eagle isn't even 30 yet. This is just the start of what figures to be a long career for Ian Eagle's son.
Much like Joe Buck, Kenny Albert and Noah Eagle got in the door because of their family connections. But all three not only put in the work, they had the talent to forge their own path. Which is why to even suggest that they are where they are is only because of nepotism isn't just incorrect, it's flat ignorant. Yet no one seems to have any issue with Kenny Albert or Noah Eagle. Just Joe Buck. Why?
If Joe Buck didn't have the talent, he wouldn't have lasted, let alone have the long, illustrious career that he did. He's not Jac Collinsworth. That's a clear case of the talent level not matching up to the high-profile assignments he was being given, which made the calls of nepotism seem more justified. NBC eventually realized that, too, and scaled back Jac Collinsworth's presence at major events. He still works for the network. We just don't see (or hear) him nearly as much.
That's the difference. And why the complaints of nepotism, specifically regarding Joe Buck, are so infuriating. He wasn't hired as FOX's lead announcer at 27 because he was Jack Buck's son. And he certainly didn't keep the lead play-by-play job on the sport's primary national broadcast for 24 years because he was Jack Buck's son. If he wasn't the right man for the job, do you really think FOX wouldn't have replaced him? Instead, they made him their primary football play-by-play man, as well, ad he was calling both World Series AND Super Bowls for the network.
I think part of the negative sentiment towards Joe Buck has more to do with fans of particular teams just not liking him more than anything else. And because he did all the postseason games, you didn't have a choice of listening to him. It will always be funny, too, how fans of both teams would always accuse him of rooting against their team and for the other team. I guess that means he was doing something right then!
Calling a national broadcast is very different than being a local announcer. One of the reasons Jack Buck was so beloved was because he spent so many years doing Cardinals games. Joe couldn't show that same sort of enthusiasm on a national broadcast. He even admitted that his call of the final out when the Cardinals won the 2011 World Series "sucked" (his words) because he didn't put enough enthusiasm into it. It takes someone who takes his craft seriously to make such an admission (Doc Emrick said something similar about his call of Patrick Kane's Stanley Cup-clinching goal against the Flyers in 2010).
Over the weekend, MLB Network aired a special where Buck was interviewed by another broadcasting legend, Bob Costas. They touched on many of these topics during the hour. It's very revealing, and it gives you a much different appreciation of him and his career. He knew that being Jack Buck's son helped give him a foot in the door. He doesn't take that for granted. But it also put a significant amount of pressure on him. And he put in the work. Work that paid off with a Hall of Fame-worthy career of his own.
For baseball fans, Joe Buck's voice provided the soundtrack of so many memorable moments over the past 25 years. You can't think of the Red Sox, White Sox or Cubs finally winning their long-awaited championships without him. Love him or hate him, there's no denying his place among the legendary baseball broadcasters. A list that includes his beloved father. Who Joe Buck now joins in Cooperstown. And deservedly so.
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