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Baseball Broadcaster Jack Buck Dies
The Hall of Fame St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster, who called everything from historic home runs to World Series-clinching outs for nearly 50 years, died late Tuesday. He was 77.
Buck, who had worked through Parkinson's, diabetes and a pacemaker, had been hospitalized in St. Louis since January 3 with an intestinal blockage. His declining health, spurred by December 5 lung-cancer surgery, caused him to miss what would have been his 49th season behind the mike for the Cardinals.
Son Joe Buck, a second-generation broadcaster and Fox's current number one baseball play-by-play man, said his father, beset by numerous infections and ailments over the last several months, finally even lost his ability to speak.
His father was like "a great pianist with broken hands," Joe Buck told USA Today.
In his prime, Jack Buck's plain, unadorned style was typified by his trademark call following a Cardinals' victory: "That's a winner!"
The call came rather late in Buck's career--he didn't remember using it until the Cardinals went on a run of three World Series appearances in the 1980s--but it stuck. Buck even used the mantra as the title for his 1987 autobiography.
"I wouldn't change a thing about my life," Buck wrote in that book. "My childhood dreams came true."
Born August 21, 1924, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Buck's dreams started coming true for real in 1954, when the Purple Heart-decorated World War II vet landed the Cardinals' gig at KMOX-AM radio alongside fellow legend-in-the-making, Harry Caray.
While Caray was fired in 1969, Buck stayed--and stayed. Even as he expanded his repertoire--calling Monday Night Football games on the radio, dabbling in pro-bowling broadcasts, becoming CBS' lead baseball commentator in 1990-91--he remained loyal to the Cardinals.
"There only is and always be just one Jack Buck," former Cardinal Jack Clark told the Associated Press. "His calls of Stan Musial, [Bob] Gibson, Ozzie [Smith] and all the way up to Mark McGwire are classics."
For Mark McGwire's record-tying 60th homerun in 1998, Buck chose to say nothing, telling his audience that he had to "stand and applaud."
For an Ozzie Smith homer that sent the Cardinals to the World Series in 1985, Buck incited fans to, "Go crazy, folks! Go crazy!"
Buck was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame--as a broadcaster, natch--in 1987. He received the Pete Rozelle Radio and Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame--the highest accolade given to a football broadcaster--in 1995. And he was the recipient of a lifetime-achievement Emmy in 2000.
In addition to son Joe, Jack Buck is survived by his wife, Carole, and seven other children.
Private funeral services are scheduled for Friday. A public memorial will be held Thursday at the Cardinals' baseball home, Busch Stadium.
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