The voice of the World Series for a generation, Joe Buck is returning to his Major League Baseball roots for a one-off broadcast on Bally Sports Midwest.
Buck will call the May 24 Cardinals-Cubs game for Bally Sports Midwest alongside the Cardinals’ regular play-by-play voice Chip Caray, Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in a feature published Wednesday. The assignment will mark Buck’s first time calling an MLB game since the 2021 World Series and his first time calling a Cardinals game since he last called their games locally in 2007.
Buck was the voice of MLB on FOX from its inception in 1996 through his departure from FOX after the 2021 season, calling all-but-two World Series over that span. (NBC aired the Fall Classic in 1997 and 1999.) Once he became the lead NFL voice on FOX, he was subject to scrutiny for appearing less committed to his MLB role, though that criticism had mostly faded by the end of his run.
In working with Caray, Buck will reunite with the original lead studio host of MLB on FOX in the mid-1990s. Buck’s father Jack and Caray’s grandfather Harry — two of the best-known and beloved broadcasters in baseball history — paired together on Cardinals games until 1969.
There is no reason to believe Buck’s return to the baseball booth is anything other than a one-time guest appearance. Any number of former MLB broadcasters — from Al Michaels on MLB Network in recent years or Curt Gowdy on ESPN two decades ago — have made a one-time return to the sport.
(Caesar article via The Athletic 5.15)
