Joe Buck’s record run calling the World Series is over, but it was going to end soon one way or the other.
The New York Post reported Wednesday that Buck planned to give up his World Series role at the end of the coming season, which was to be the last under his Fox contract. Buck was instead let out of his contract a year early to follow his NFL partner Troy Aikman to ESPN.
Buck called all 24 World Series ever broadcast by Fox, including the past 22 straight. He is tied with his former partner Tim McCarver for the most World Series ever called on television.
Though he ranks among the most ubiquitous broadcasters in baseball history — having also called St. Louis Cardinals games on the radio for many years — Buck has in the past expressed some level of ambivalence about the role. When asked in 2007 about his reduced presence on Fox MLB coverage, he told The New York Times: “If you or the casual fan doesn’t want to consider me the No. 1 baseball announcer at Fox, it’s not my concern. I don’t know why it would matter.”
Buck’s football role had taken on increasing priority even in baseball’s primary month of October. Earlier in his career, Buck would take weeks off from NFL duties to call the full slate of baseball playoff action — even Division Series games. More recently, he has maintained a limited schedule of NFL games during the baseball playoffs, even skipping a Game 7 of the NLCS two years ago to work a Sunday game for FOX.
His replacement on that NLCS Game 7 two years ago, Joe Davis, is widely expected to fill the vacancy on the lead FOX MLB team.
ESPN’s release on Buck’s hiring did not mention any Major League Baseball role. The network has already picked Karl Ravech as its lead MLB voice and while it will have four Wild Card series starting this season, it is highly unlikely that Buck would take time away from Monday Night Football to call any of them.
[News from NYP 3.16]
