Even though Joe Buck is more widely known these days as the voice of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” his broadcast career is rooted in baseball, including calling the most World Series games on television.
On Wednesday, Buck received a call that he thought was at least a few years down the line when he found out he received the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting by baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Buck is not only the 50th winner of the Frick Award, he joins his father, Jack, to become the only father-son duo to win the honor. Jack Buck — who broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games from 1954 until 2021 and was the lead announcer on CBS’ baseball package in 1990 and ’91 — received the award in 1987.
“I am shocked in many ways. I didn’t think this was coming right now,” Buck said. “I was saying to the group that called to tell me that my best memory of my father as a major league baseball broadcaster was in 1987 in Cooperstown, New York, and what it meant to him, what it meant to our family to see him get the award. To see the joy and the pride that he had for what he had done.”
Joe Buck will receive the award during the Hall’s July 25, 2026, awards presentation in Cooperstown, a day ahead of induction ceremonies. At 56, Buck becomes the second-youngest Frick Award winner, trailing only Vin Scully, who was 54 when he was named the 1982 winner.
Buck grew up in St. Louis and called games for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds in 1989 and ’90 after graduating from Indiana University. He joined his father for Cardinals broadcasts in 1991, a job Joe held through 2007. Jack Buck died in June 2002 at age 77.
“I was lucky to call Jack Buck my dad and my best friend. I’m lucky that I’m Carol Buck’s son. I tend to downplay awards and what have you because of always feeling like I had a leg up at the start of my career and I did. I’m the first to admit it. But I am happy that when I was a kid I paid attention and I wanted to be with him. I think the greatest gift my dad gave me was allowing me to be in the room with him. I’d like to think there’s still some stuff out in front of me, but this is the greatest honor I could receive. And to know what he would be thinking and feeling on this day, that’s the part what makes it special.
“I recall him saying (during his speech) that he was honored to be the eyes and the ears for Cardinal fans, wherever the Cardinals went, and he was very proud of being the conduit between wherever the Cardinals were playing and those fans that were listening. That always resonated with me.”
Buck joined Fox Sports when it started doing NFL games in 1994. Two years later, it got the rights to Major League Baseball and Buck was made the lead announcer with Tim McCarver as the analyst. McCarver retired from broadcasting after the 2013 season and received the Frick Award in 2021.
Buck was 27 when he called his first World Series in 1996. He would go on to do the Fall Classic in 1998 and then annually from 2000-21. His 135 World Series games makes him one of six U.S. play-by-play announcers to reach the century mark calling either the Fall Classic, NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Finals. Scully had 126 World Series games on radio and television.
Buck also worked 21 All-Star Games and 26 League Championship Series for Fox before joining ESPN in 2022 as the voice of “Monday Night Football.”
Since going to ESPN, Buck called a game on Opening Day last year and worked a Cardinals game with Chip Caray in 2023. Buck said there is the possibility of doing a couple more games for ESPN in the future.
“I think of myself as a baseball announcer probably first because that’s what I was around the most. I love the game. I’m a fan of the game,” he said. “I still dream as a baseball announcer at night. I think all announcers have the same nightmare where you show up at a game and you can’t see anybody on the field, you don’t know anybody’s name and you’re trying to fake your way through a broadcast. Those are all baseball games in my dreams. So it’s in my genetics, it’s in my DNA. I grew up at Bush Stadium as a kid and yeah, baseball is always kind of first and foremost in my heart.”
Buck also becomes the sixth broadcaster to win both the Frick Award and the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, joining Jack Buck, Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy, Al Michaels and Lindsey Nelson.
A broadcaster must have 10 continuous years of experience with a network or team to be considered, and the ballot was picked by a subcommittee of past winners that includes Marty Brennaman, Joe Castiglione and Bob Costas, along with broadcast historians David J. Halberstam and Curt Smith. At least one candidate must be a foreign-language broadcaster.
Voters are 13 past winners — Brennaman, Castiglione, Costas, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Jaime Jarrín, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Michaels, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Dave Van Horne and Tom Hamilton — plus historians Halberstam, Smith and former Dallas Morning News writer Barry Horn.
John Rooney of the St. Louis Cardinals and Brian Anderson of the Milwaukee Brewers were ballot newcomers this year, joining returnees Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Duane Kuiper and John Sterling. Buck was on the ballot after being dropped last year, and Dan Shulman was on for the third time in four years.
AP Baseball writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report.
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