It matters because Buck, 38, a witty and talented broadcaster, is part of a Saturday afternoon baseball lineage that includes Curt Gowdy, Vin Scully, Joe Garagiola and Buck’s father, Jack, and because fans often link a network’s sports properties to the announcers who call the games.

This is quite the paragraph.

Unfortunately, FOX's other play by play men are worse.

This article reminds me of how much I truly hate Tim McCarver.

Good god Buck's THIRTY EIGHT? I thought he was a good ten years older than that.

I'd gladly give up Len Kasper once a week for the good of the nation.

And I'm not being sarcastic, I really don't mind giving up a great announcer like Kasper every 7 games, such that the pox of Joe Buck could come to an end.

witty and talented broadcaster

One out of three ain't bad.

Oh great. More Tom Brennaman. From the lesser to lesserer in announcers who wouldn't have their careers without famous fathers.

Good god Buck's THIRTY EIGHT? I thought he was a good ten years older than that.

Yup. He seems to keep in shape, too, so he'll be with us for a while.

In Buck's defense, his voice sounds pretty nice for a broadcaster. It's just everything else about broadcasting he's bad at.

Joe Buck has a disgusting act.

Fine by me; Buck sounds bored out of his mind when he's calling a baseball game anyway.

At least we know get to witness Buck further his quest to set a career record for variations on the phrase "fire[s] [a pass]."

"Favre FIRES it downfield."

"And that ball is FIRED and Owens grabs it."

"Grossman FIRED it into the arms of a defender."

And so on.

Good god Buck's THIRTY EIGHT? I thought he was a good ten years older than that.

He's been telling kids to get off his lawn since the second grade.

Good god Buck's THIRTY EIGHT?

I have ties older than Joe Buck

He's been telling kids to get off his lawn since the second grade.

Young fogeyism: another trait he shares with Brennaman. Exposed to too much old fogeyism while they were growing up, so by the time they were 21 their view of the world was already that of a crusty veteran announcer.

I wondered why FSN Cardinals games were less annoying this year...

he works well with Aikman on the NFL games, partially because Aikman is top-notch as an analyst.

#15: No question.

(Aikman's respone to any opinion stated by Buck.)

I really don't get the mainstream love for Buck. His voice is OK, but everything else is just generic broadcaster. He doesn't bring any sort of charisma or unique trait to the game. Weird.

I really don't get the mainstream love for Buck.

I don't know even any casual fans who like Joe Buck. All the love seems to come from the media, probably because of his last name.

I don't know even any casual fans who like Joe Buck. All the love seems to come from the media, probably because of his last name.

He's definitley a legacy. We're in the age of the legacy aren't we? Damn my plebian family! Damn them!

Fine by me; Buck sounds bored out of his mind when he's calling a baseball game anyway.

I completely agree, but think it's true with his football broadcasts too. His tone of voice makes it seem as if he feels put upon to even be there.

Buck always strikes me as an announcer who's got to be interested right now and if something on the field doesn't interest him, well, by golly, he'll find something that does. This is why a Joe Buck announced game, I swear, involves a dissection of almost everything besides the actual game at hand: Does the ballboy look funny? Is the quarterback married to a Playboy model? Was Dick Sargent better than Dick York?

There was a mention of "new fogeyness" tendencies above--this stream of consciousness, I think, is also a trait of some new fogeys. Thom Brennaman is a little better at restraining his flights of fancy, but I'll always remember him beginning a diatribe against the BCS system during the LAST PLAY of last year's Fiesta Bowl.

Save the Scully-Garagiola duo in the 1980s, broadcasters for the Game of the Week has been bad since Curt Gowdy took over for Dizzy Dean.

Buck always strikes me as an announcer who's got to be interested right now and if something on the field doesn't interest him, well, by golly, he'll find something that does.

This is seriously probably why FOX loves him.

Saturday afternoon baseball lineage that includes Curt Gowdy, Vin Scully, Joe Garagiola and Buck’s father, Jack,

Jack doesn't really belong in this list I would say, as he had a very short stint on Saturday afternoons as compared to the others.

Young fogeyism: another trait he shares with Brennaman. Exposed to too much old fogeyism while they were growing up, so by the time they were 21 their view of the world was already that of a crusty veteran announcer.

Interesting observation. I remember Joe doing an inning of Cardinal baseball when he was around 14 years old or so - he sounded much older/mature even then....

There was a mention of "new fogeyness" tendencies above--this stream of consciousness, I think, is also a trait of some new fogeys. Thom Brennaman is a little better at restraining his flights of fancy, but I'll always remember him beginning a diatribe against the BCS system during the LAST PLAY of last year's Fiesta Bowl.

I don't know if TB is, tho - I remember some Red Sox / A's playoff (might've been 2003) where Manny was Manny after a particularly admirable home run, and the next time Manny came up (or it might've been the next game), TB started on a "SHOWBOATING KILLS UNBORN BABIES" type of rant that I swear was cut off mid-steam by some sympathetic Fox producer. Possibly the one time someone in a Fox truck did something to make a Fox MLB broadcast more enjoyable.

Tho Brennemann has miles to go before he can top Buck's palpable digust at Randy Moss' "moon."

Brennaman is a little better at restraining his flights of fancy, but I'll always remember him beginning a diatribe against the BCS system during the LAST PLAY of last year's Fiesta Bowl.

BCS...just might be....the GREATEST hitting second baseman...of ALL time. But as a means for evaluating the best teams in the country...it falls FAR short of any skilled observer's eyes. BCS will never be able to measure heart.

Fox Sports exists solely to make Fox News look good by comparison.

BCS...just might be....the GREATEST hitting second baseman...of ALL time. But as a means for evaluating the best teams in the country...it falls FAR short of any skilled observer's eyes. BCS will never be able to measure heart.

Very good, but you needed to work in "arguably" and "HISSSSSTory."

Thhhuhom and Joe are a really ####### good argument against nepotism.

Well, that and the Ford family. And Bush.

Tho Brennemann has miles to go before he can top Buck's palpable digust at Randy Moss' "moon."
My impression at the time was that Buck thought Moss was making more of a "taking a dump" gesture. I could certainly be wrong, but it seemed that way to me.

Though I generally follow the crowd when it comes to threads about disliking broadcasters, I have always thought Buck did a good job. Admittedly, I find him more competent than enjoyable.

In all fairness, Fox's BCS coverage was actually very good and gets a huge boost for not having Brent Musberger.

"Fox Sports exists solely to make Fox News look good by comparison."


You've won the thread. Good for you.

from my experience I don't think there are that many announcers out there that anyone likes. Go to a bar and talk about the announcer on tv and listen to the number of people that claim he sucks (doesn't work if vin scully is announcing of course)

Joe is a safe announcer, outside of randy moss incident he doesn't really make mistakes (which of course is some of the fun of mike shannon, among others) and that is why they keep going to him.

from my experience I don't think there are that many announcers out there that anyone likes.

Everyone sounds so generic to me. Maybe that's from watching and listening to games for 40 years. But with the MLB Extra Innings package I hear all of them at times now and I think you could switch the TV announcers from, say, the NL Central teams to other ones and no one would notice.

Even in that group the Cardinal TV guys seem particularly bland and barely awake - the absolute other side of the spectrum from the days of Harry Caray (who I realize didn't do much TV in St. Louis).

from my experience I don't think there are that many announcers out there that anyone likes.

On just Yankee broadcasts, I like Ken Singleton, I liked Jim Kaat, and I really like Al Leiter. I even have an irrational like for Bobby Murcer, although I understand those who disagree with me.

And Michael Kay?

Kaat is gone so alas we cannot count him.

I think Leiter is great, but he's probably done fewer than 50 games, so we'll see how well he ages. Girardi seems to have potential, but I've only heard him a handful of times. I don't like any of the other 50 Yankee announcers.

And Scooter Lives, so I like him too.

Ron Darling is pretty good, but overshadowed by the sideshow of Keith Hernandez. But even KEITH is overshadowed by himself, sadly, as when he's analyzing the game he is quite astute, notices a lot of little things. Cohen used to be great on the radio, and has turned completely unbearable since being on TV.

It matters because Buck, 38, a witty and talented broadcaster,

Huh. I always thought that word started with a "sh."

I think the general Cubs fan reception of Len Kaspar has been good, and you can't find anyone to say a bad word about Pat Hughes, WGN's radio broadcaster.

I really don't get the mainstream love for Buck. His voice is OK, but everything else is just generic broadcaster. He doesn't bring any sort of charisma or unique trait to the game. Weird.

When sailing in the Sea of Crap, plain ol' H2O looks pretty darn good.

the sideshow of Keith Hernandez

Anybody catch Keith get the Philly teams screwed up on the longest losing streaks...and then demand that Cohen check his facts in that "Funk & Wagnalls Baseball Encyclopedia" or somesuch?

Cohen used to be great on the radio, and has turned completely unbearable since being on TV.

Really? He's sounded the same to me (tho I've only caught a few Mets' games this year).

"...from my experience I don't think there are that many announcers out there that anyone likes."

For the Pirates, I like Bob Walk an awful lot, and John Wehner is usually pretty good when I can understand what he's saying.