Last Monday, Joe Buck handled his first baseball broadcast since his 2021 departure from FOX. While he enjoyed it, it’s quite clear that fans should not get used to it.
Buck did a one-off appearance on a St. Louis Cardinals broadcast alongside regular play-by-play man Chip Caray, a nod to Jack Buck and Harry Caray’s history as broadcasting partners. In an appearance on ESPN Radio’s “Carlin vs. Joe” podcast, Buck said he had enjoyed the experience, but it might not happen again, citing it as “closure” for his baseball broadcasting career.
“It was fun and Chip Caray was amazing to welcome me in, and to be as open as he was and he just kept wanting me to do the play-by-play and I wanted him to do it,” Buck said, via Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing. “But it was a blast to sit there with him and get back in there, and do it locally instead of the national stuff. It was fun. I’m glad I did it, I don’t know that I’ll do it again, but there was a little bit of closure there for me after walking away from FOX after 2021.”
When Buck initially left FOX to become the voice of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” he essentially said that he was done calling baseball games. He hedged after that and said on multiple occasions that there is some allure to doing games locally, as he did this week with the Cardinals. For now, it sounds like even that door is closed, though he may well hedge on that again in the future.
Buck’s temporary turn in the booth for the Cardinals was quite well-received. He does not sound like he plans to do baseball full-time ever again, but fans would probably enjoy it if he popped up occasionally on a local telecast.
