Buck And Caray Calling A Cards Game? Holy Cow!
I'll be honest, I'm not a Cardinals fan. My allegiances run with the Chicago Cubs in the National League, and the Kansas City Royals in the American League. Yet, as a fan of the late Cardinals, White Sox, and Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray, and his grandson Chip who called seven seasons of Cubs games with Steve Stone, I like the idea of Joe Buck and Chip Caray calling a Cardinals game, and it looks like it's going to happen.
Joe Buck is one of those broadcasters who is polarizing to fans. I was one of those guys that he tended to rub the wrong way until I figured out that my problem wasn't really with how he called a game, I just didn't like that he was a Cardinals fan
I don't have a problem with him calling Monday Night Football, and I can't say whether or not he had a conscious anti-Cubs bias doing Fox broadcasts. It seems most national announcers calling baseball games tend to gravitate to the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals and the heck with everyone else.
Or more recently, in both football and baseball, announcers get excited about whatever team seems to have the most "interesting" story NOW. That can change at a moment's notice based on whatever is happening on the field.
When the Cards hired Chip Caray to call their games I thought it was a great hire, almost as good as when the team got John Rooney from the White Sox broadcast booth.
If you're a baseball fan or even a sports broadcasting fan, then you're probably geeking out over what is now a somewhat unconfirmed rumor that Joe Buck and Chip Caray will call a game.
For those a little less nuanced in broadcast and or sports history. Jack Buck, Joe's father, and Harry Caray, Chip's grandfather started calling Cardinal games in 1954 and did it for 14 years. The St. Louis Walk of Fame asserts that their 14-year partnership "Has been called the greatest broadcast team in baseball history."
Fox 2 Now is reporting that Buck and Cary will call the May 24 Cardinals-Cubs game on Bally Sports Midwest, citing the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Athletic of their sources. They also cite The Athletic's Katie Woo as reporting that both Buck and Caray will switch off doing traditional play-by-play duties while swapping stories about Harry and Jack.
As a baseball fan and a little bit of a broadcast geek, it sounds like a fun evening of baseball, history, and reminiscing from a couple of guys who know how to tell stories.
With apologies to Cubs broadcasters Jon "Boog" Sciambi and Jim Deshaies that's one night I'll be checking out the Cardinals telecast.
It might also be one of the few highlights from what's looking like another difficult season for Cardinals fans.
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Gallery Credit: Seth Berkman