A polarizing figure in sportscasting there has never been. Hall-Of-Fame Sportscaster Joe Buck is certainly one of a kind. But it seems to have gotten to a point where hating on Joe Buck is just the ‘cool’ or trendy thing to do.
For what it’s worth, I think the guy is a great sportscaster. He has all the hallmarks of an excellent play caller over multiple sports. He lets the game breathe, he’s knowledgeable, he’s entertaining and he’s got a great voice. All those for me are checkmarks when it comes to someone I want to listen to for 3+ hours.
Regardless, hating on Joe Buck might become a little more difficult after this article from NPR promoting his new book, where Buck himself admits to being a “lucky bastard” during his career, and it’s hard to argue with that. NPR recently published the transcript of an interview they conducted with him here he talks about his career, being in the right place at the right time and some of the more amazing things he’s seen.
Well, I think when you do radio, like what we’re doing right now, there’s a certain amount of freedom that when you walk in and sit down and turn the mic on, it’s you. It’s all you. If I sit down in the broadcast booth and I’m doing radio, I can talk about the weather. I can talk about the popcorn vendor. I can talk about the uniforms that the two teams are wearing. I can talk about the size of the crowd, talk about who’s up in the bullpen.
When I’m doing TV, it’s more of a choreographed dance, in a way. So I’ve got to follow the pictures, or the pictures have to follow me. So there’s a little bit more of a freedom when you’re doing radio play-by-play as opposed to television. I prefer the television side of it. I started in radio. I enjoy the mental gymnastics that go along with matching voice to picture and vice versa and trying to accent the action as opposed to provide all of the action through my words. And that’s really what play-by-play is.
Click here to read the full transcript.
