While on the new Buck and McKernan Show with Joe Buck and Tim McKernan for nearly 25 minutes, Sheen told Buck that he teared up listening to Buck’s call on David Freese’s walk-off home run in Game 6 of the World Series.
Sheen said on the show, which is having a test run this week on KFNS (590 AM) from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and is also available at insidestl.com: “I’ve gotta tell you also, Joe, I was in Minnesota for Game 6 ’91. I was there. And if I’m not mistaken, you honored your father with the Freese walk off, the same call. It was so cool. I had tears. I was like he’s been waiting 20 years to do that you know…”
Buck answered: “It was almost 20 years to the day and anybody who asks me about it and why I did it, I did it for my mom who was watching and hanging on every word and misses my dad like crazy. It’s in St. Louis. St. Louis kid David Freese hits the home run so it just fit. And I’m not going to be a Jack Buck cover band and do his hits…I’m just going to leave well enough alone and that will be that.”
Expounding further on his baseball fandom—which he referred to as his religion—Sheen said: “That’s the greatest game ever played, by the way. I think it’s just this much better than Game 6 (in) ’75.”
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1. The Mohole* of David Wells (* - Piehole)1) Charlie Sheen
2) Joe Buck
I don't know this McKernan fellow so he can stay, but he's on a short leash.
chromosome 17, IIRC
EDIT: 17p24
Yup. It's exactly why good announcing would have uniquely reflected that game, as opposed to inauthentically stepping on the climax with a rap sample from Buck Daddy. Jack Buck's most famous calls are remembered today because they rose to the occasions in organic, colloquial ways. He wasn't just ripping off old Curt Gowdy lines with pre-orchestrated intent. Which is one reason why Jack was who he was and why Joe is Frank Sinatra, Jr.
The perfect parallel situation, almost 20 years to the night later.
How about the glorious "almost 13 years to the night later" situation, when Joe Buck used the exact same line? Truly a thrice-in-a-lifetime moment, and counting.
There isn't much you can do to address the fact that Buck has now used his father's signature call more than his father did.
Correct groupthink: "Joe Buck Sucks"
Taboo: "Joe Buck has perfect pacing, is polished, accurate, and smooth, but is ultimately bland, characterless, and utilizes the same delivery for Fox Promos as for the helmet catch."
Correct groupthink: "I hate Tim McCarver"
Taboo: "McCarver is distinctive, with strengths in identifying alternative strategies that the manager could choose to employ. But he rambles, he tries overhard to be clever or (worse)cute, and his high-level analysis is sometimes pitiful ("walks clog the bases").
But you still haven't answered the legitimate non-bash criticism of Buck in this case, his repeated reduction of his father's iconic call.
And BTW, I've always liked McCarver.
Re: #17, I guess you don't read this site much, because there have been plenty of discussion on Buck that is exactly like your supposedly "taboo" ones, and there have even been plenty of discussions about him that have been even more developed, measured, and subtle.
Good to know. Using the term "Taboo" was obviously hyperbole; feel free to replace it with "contrarian", which is what even very measured praise for Joe Buck (or Joe Morgan) amounts to around here (see #5 above). I'm neutral on Joe Buck, and find the rampant nepotism in sprotscasting to be...what? Un-American, I guess.
#18
The criticism sounds legit. I admit that I did not hear the Ortiz one, so I heard the 2011 game 6 "tomorrow night" call exactly 2 decades after hearing the first one. So, for me, a good experience. Was the 2004 call really just the same --ball in flight for 'We'll see you', lands at "tomorrow night"?
If I am remembering correctly, it was when David Ortiz won ALCS game 4 with a homer after midnight to keep the Sox alive, and Buck said something like "we'll see you later tonight." So it was not the exact same thing, but more of an adaptation.
I do agree that sometimes anti-announcer sentiment is kneejerk and counter-productive. If the public only complained about a few announcers, the powers-that-be would be more likely to take the complaints seriously.
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