Joe Buck opens up about his hair plug addiction

Do you remember about five years ago when Joe Buck was announcing games and sounded absolutely horrible? At the time, the explanation was that Buck had a virus and that was why his voice was off. But as he revealed in his new book, Buck says the voice issues were due to a glitch from his eighth procedure for hair plugs.

Buck’s new book “Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, And The Things I’m Not Allowed To Say On TV” will be out on Nov. 15 and was written by an SI writer. To promote the book, Buck did an interview with SI’s Richard Deitsch in which he talked about the biggest revelation in the book.

Beginning at the age of 24 in 1993, Buck had his first procedure for hair replacement because he was fearful of losing his hair. Over time he had seven more procedures, including the one before the 2011 baseball season began that resulted in his left vocal chord being paralyzed.

SI’s Richard Deitsch explains what happened:

When he woke up from the anesthetic, Buck could not speak. He believes his vocal cord was paralyzed because of a cuff the surgery center used to protect him during the procedure. A doctor not part of the operation theorized to Buck that the cuff probably got jostled during the procedure and sat on the nerve responsible for firing his left vocal cord.

Buck told the public — and his bosses at FOX — that the vocal problems were due to a virus. He now has come clean about his lies.

“I was lying,” Buck said told Deitsch. “I think people bend the truth all the time, unfortunately. It was really for self-preservation and ego for me. As I look back, I gave partial truths. Where I lied was when I said the reason why. People would ask, ‘Why is your vocal cord paralyzed?’ I said it was a virus. I didn’t say it was an elective procedure to add hair to the front of my head. It was embarrassing. There’s an embarrassing element to that. Any surgery done to improve one’s looks is not really something someone wants to talk about. So it’s very cathartic to get this out.”

Buck says he was in denial at the time over his hair procedures, saying to himself he needed to have more hair for work, but in truth he realizes it was all for his ego.

Buck’s book is being published by Penguin.