Joe Buck reveals why he turned down notable request from ESPN
Jan 14, 2018; Minneapolis, MN, USA; FOX analyst Joe Buck before the NFC Divisional Playoff football game between the Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Joe Buck’s departure from FOX Sports meant he would no longer call the World Series for the network. ESPN has a baseball package too, however, so he theoretically could have continued calling the sport if he wanted to.
In an appearance on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina, Buck admitted that ESPN had inquired about having him call a few baseball games, but he just was not interested anymore in doing that.
“They kinda gingerly asked me to do a game during the season,” Buck said, via Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing. “I think Karl Ravech missed a game, and they said, ‘Would you wanna do it?’ It might have been in St. Louis, I don’t even know. And I said, ‘Let’s just give it some time.’
“I’m ready to move on from that part of my life. I’ve done baseball broadcasting since I was 19, professionally. I feel like I’ve done all I could do there. If someday I wanna go back and call a few games — maybe. But I don’t have that itch. I love the sport. I love watching it. I’m so glad I did it. I’m proud of how and what I did, but I don’t have that desire at the moment to just keep doing the same thing over and over and over.”
In other words, Buck will not be doing any MLB work anytime soon. That may change, but he certainly sounds like he has made up his mind.
Buck got a huge payday to move from FOX to ESPN, where he does “Monday Night Football” and has a more forgiving schedule than he used to. A lot of baseball fans probably don’t even miss him now that he is gone.
