Joe Buck is no shill for Major League Baseball. Far from it, in fact.
Not only can Buck rarely be bothered to broadcast games, calling fourteen regular season games in the past two years, but he has made it known that he does not enjoy the game as much as he once did.
Years ago, Buck told the New York Times, “I don’t think I’m destined for more than 10 more years in baseball … The ‘Game of the Week’ isn’t what it was. I put a lot of work into those games, but you don’t get the same payoff as you get from a great football game.”
That statement alone is insulting enough to the viewers who do value the Game of the Week — the three million or so viewers who tune in every Saturday afternoon to watch a broadcast that is apparently no longer what it once was.
Today, Buck went further while on ESPN Radio. In addition to admitting he spends “barely any” time watching sports during the week, Buck said it is “a lot to ask of people” to watch baseball games that “take forever”.
While he noted that football games take as long as baseball games, Buck pointed out that football has “such an advantage being once a week, and every game is big, and there’s only sixteen games all year — that’s a big deal. … And you really, you can put three hours in and be totally caught up on your team. Baseball’s a different thing, and night after night — that’s asking a lot these days.”
Nothing Buck said is necessarily untrue. However, for the lead broadcaster of a sport to say that watching games every night is essentially a waste of time is a damning indictment on the game, and the broadcaster himself. The best announcers can criticize the games they broadcast without sounding as if they are tired of them.
Buck also echoed previous comments on the declining stature of the Game of the Week, which he has been the lead broadcaster of since 1996:
Perhaps the reason the Game of the Week has lost its luster is because men like Scully and Garigiola are no longer doing the broadcasts. Instead, it’s Buck — whose cynicism towards baseball could not be any clearer.
Considering how few games Buck has broadcast in the past two years — eight regular season games last season and six so far this year — would any fans miss him if he left? Buck has called the last eight consecutive World Series, yet he can accurately be described as a football announcer who does baseball on the side.
If Buck thinks football is so superior to baseball, why not become a football-only announcer? Perhaps FOX could replace him with someone who does not appear to think the game is beneath him.
