Latest / Foul Territory / Joe Buck joins Tim+Jeff Kurkjian’s “Is This A Great Game, or What?”

Transcript

Joe Buck joins Tim+Jeff Kurkjian’s “Is This A Great Game, or What?” · Foul Territory

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Is this a great game or what? And
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: our special guest is Joe Buck, Hall of Fame broadcaster.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: He will be enshrined in Cooperstown in July of this
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: year join his father as the only father son duo
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: ever to win the Ford Frick Award. Joe, this is
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: my son Jeffrey.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Guys, this is awesome and that you guys do this
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: makes me smile. You know, people always ask me, what
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: are the highlights of my career? What called is your favorite?
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Do you like baseball better than football or vice versa.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: My answer is always when I got to do games
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: with my dad, I got to sit next to him,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I got to broadcast baseball games for the Cardinals, sitting
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: in a seat literally one seat over from the chair
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: that I grew up in, going to Old Bush Stadium,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: and it just I was smart enough at the time, Kirchins,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: to not take it for granted. And I've soaked it in.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I gotta let a lot of the time back that
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I didn't have with my dad when he was gone,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: a lot when I was a kid. But he and
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: I were best friends. He was the best man of
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: my wedding. And yeah, he's been gone for almost twenty
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: five years now. It's hard for me to even say
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: that and believe it. But working with your dad, doing
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: stuff with your dad or and your case tim with
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: your son is really cool. So I'm glad you're doing it.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Joe, I know you've told this story one hundred times,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: but tell us, tell Jeffrey the story about when your
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: dad just like left the broadcast booth and left you
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: in charge of the play by play and you were
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: like twelve years old.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Explain what happened. Well, I got a chance to do.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I got, you know, a little snippets here and there,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: like one time when I was sixteen, I sat behind
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: the mic. I mean, this just shows you the confidence
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: and the idea that he was not going to get fired.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: He was like a Supreme Court justice as the Cardinals announcer,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: and so he just completely threw all caution into the wind.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: It was it was at Shae Shay Stadium. It was
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: my eighteenth birthday, I think I'm right. And then it
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: was Whitey herds Zug's two thousandth victory as a manager,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: or somewhere in there. It was Joe McGrain. I believe
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: major league debut Cardinals at Mets. I was supposed to
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: be at a prom that weekend and my date dumped me,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: and my dad said, well, why don't you come up
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: to New York with me? So I went up to
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: work and I was in the back of this crappy
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: little booth, the visiting radio booth at Shay Stadium. That's
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: about as small a little box as you can and find.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: And I'm sitting in the back of the radio engineer
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: and I hear my dad saying, now to take us
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: through the fifth inning? Is my son, the birthday boy,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Joe Buck. And I panicked. I was like, Dad, no,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I got my hands up. I'm like, please, don't, I
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: really mustn't. And he and Mike Shannon got up and
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: walked out of the booth and the inning started, and
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: I quickly got up went down there did the inning.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: It was an uneventful inning. There was no home run,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: there was no double play, there was no triple play,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: there was no rundown, there was nothing. It was probably
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: a pop up and two groundouts. Took about fifteen seconds,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: it felt like, and I got through the inning and
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: then I went back up and I sat next to
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Colin Jarrett, the radio engineer it was from Trinidad. It
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: with this really heavy accent, sweetheart, heart of a man.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: And I sit down next to him. I'm like, well, Colin,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: how was that? And his answer was it lacked description,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: which is who you want when you're doing radio TV.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: But I was probably like Rob All the short stop
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: picked it up, throws the first one out. Yeah, that
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: was my that was my eighteenth birthday.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: That is so good. So Jeff go ahead, ask asked
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Joe the question that I'm not allowed to ask him.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: Well, one of my favorite television shows. I was good.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: We did.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: We did an episode record before this, and Joe, I mean,
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: you're a broadcaster, so you get it. This interview will
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: run like five days after we recorded it. So I
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: have a change of clothes and hat to my left.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: But we we had talked so long together, I didn't
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: have time to change.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Well, now I think you're just rubbing it in my face.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I get so many fillings your call and the World series.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: He was so much better. I'm like, I know the
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: local radio guy who Harry was one of my dad's
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: best friends, Like it should be better. I'm doing TV
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: on national TV. That's where when you get a chance
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: to do a world series and you're doing local radio,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: which is massive in Philadelphia. That's where that's where you
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: stretch your wings. That's where you make your calls that
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: everybody remembers for the rest of time. Network TV is
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: not that way. But I digress. Anyway, what is the
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: question that you wanted to ask?
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Well, the question. First of all, I just want to
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: say in aside, thank you for the kind words about
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: you know, working with your father and that time you spent.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: Because trust me, like I sit back on this show
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: all the time and I just say to myself, don't
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: forget this moment, like, don't forget dad driving up from
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Maryland to Pennsylvania to do a show with you. Don't
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: forget these moments. Because I have two and a half
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: year old daughter and I look at her all the
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: time and I say, don't forget this exact moment because
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: she'll be eighteen tomorrow before I know it. Right, That's
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: what everybody says. So I really appreciate what you said
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: about your dad because I feel that I feel so
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: grateful every single day to do this show and to
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: get to meet great people like yourself and talk to
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: great broadcasters like yourself. So The question I want to
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: ask is less about your broadcast career and more about
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: your acting career on one of my favorite shows of
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: all time, Brockmeyer, in which you had a huge role
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: and my dad had a very small There are never
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: small actors, never small parts. But my dad is a
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: small actor and had a small part.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Well, we all showed up there, and I mean, Tim,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: you correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't even
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: remember the whole group it was. You mean, Kenny, Brian,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Kenny was right right, and I don't know somebody else,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: But we showed up there. It was in Atlanta. I think,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: I know I speak for you, Tim when I say
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: we had no idea what we were really walking into,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: I mean none. And I had the only reason why.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I think I had a little bit of an inn
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: with Hank And maybe you were part of this too,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: But back that show, its origins were on Funnier Die,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: and he used to do that character, and he did
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: a five minute piece on Funnier Die, maybe even shorter
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: that I sat at Dodger Stadium and did like a
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: fake interview about how great of an announcer Jim Brockmeyer was.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: And so when they did the show. They reached back
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: out to me, and I was one of you know
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: this this group of guys. I think our role was
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: only to give it kind of some form of legitimacy.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: We were that he was actually a major League baseball
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: broadcaster at one point, so he could reference us. But
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: I had I had no idea what we were walking into.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: I know Tim didn't. We had a blast that day.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, as you can tell you, I can tell Jeff,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: you have the same laugh as your dad. Your dad
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: loves life. Everybody loves your dad, and it's the greatest
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: laugh of all time. And so we sat around between takes.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: I don't know if if you agree with me, but
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: I was blown away by Hanker's area. I was always
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: a fan, but watching him do and I came back
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: on seasons two three, you know, somewhere in there I
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: had a recurring role, but uh, watching him act was brilliant.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: I saw him deliver a monologue. Uh, and I think Tim,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: we were all there that day, maybe not, but a
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: monologue that he just nailed it every time. It was
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: like Nicholson and a few good men. And I mean,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: he's so talented. But yeah, I don't know why Tim's
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: role was smaller than mine, other with in his area.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Joe was great in it and Hank was better.
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: Though.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Hank was so generous with his time. I mean, here,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: he's got all these lines to learn, and all he
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: cared about was taking care of us to make sure
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: that we were comfortable. And Joe, I remember talking to
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: the producer, director or whatever. He said, this is a
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: small budget that we have here, so we are doing
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: this in one day. Whether it's any good or not,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: we're doing it in one day. We're not, and we're
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: stopping at seven o'clock because we're not paying overtime. And
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: we didn't like the whole show in one day. And
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: they told me if this was like an NBCABC, CBS production,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: it would taken two weeks to film. That we did
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: it in one day. Because Hank was so in charge
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: of things. I was so impressed with what an actor
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: goes through. He was breathtaking to watch.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: He really was. And I will tell you you that
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: I get more comments about that show than almost anything
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: I've done. It is amazing the reach that that show
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: has had. And maybe it's because of the circles I'm
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: in with, you know, friends that love sports or friends
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: that you know that know what I do or whatever.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: But I'd give random comments in airports and whatever of
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: hey loved him Brockmeier. And it was on IFC, I
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: believe so it was. It was not like it was
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: on Netflix or it was on it should be. It's
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: that good. And I think the writing is that good.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: They made a detestable character sympathetic. And that's when you
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: know that the writing is good. That this guy who
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: was a mess and you should root, you know, for
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: total failure for this guy. You want to see him succeed.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: And that's that's both in the writing and in the
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: acting job that Hank did. He I loved everything he
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: put up.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: And Jeff Joe must have had a hundred lines, and
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I had like four lines, three of which were, hey, Jim,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: how's it going? Okay? Anyone could have delivered it. But
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: let's see if Joe remembers the malaprop that I delivered
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: that I've screwed up a line.
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: The only line matter.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Do you remember this joke?
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Because I remember the moment. I don't remember that what
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: you said, but you reversed it, right? Yeah?
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Well I had a barber streisand line, and I
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: had to say something like I love her. She made
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: me cry. I loved her in yentel. But and I
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: delivered it properly the first three times, but the fourth time,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the last time we did it, I said I loved
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: her in lentil, which is it's a it's a legon,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: it's a vegetable, it's a bean. I got lentil and
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: yentle mixed up, and it actually ran in the show
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: because it was so bad, like I screwed it up
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: so badly, they kept it.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Do you remember that. I remember that moment because everybody's like,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: say lentil, and then we appy and yes that, but
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: we all laughed. I mean, I think that was kind
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: of the fun fun of it. And it again it
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: shows that they were kind of flying by the seat
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: of their pants to some degree that if if it
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: was a moment that wasn't scripted. I've done a few
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: of those things along the way, and what I've always
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: found is the writers are very precious about their words.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: I guess, as they should be, but you feel compelled
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: to use the exact words that are on the script
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: that they hand you, even if sometimes those phrases are
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: nothing that you would say even when they're trying to
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: do broadcasting and they're trying to do play by play,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: It's like, I would never say that. So it again.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: I mean it was. It was just a moment, and
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: what they used of me in the show was me
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: kind of going off script a little bit. I just
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: kind of went for it, and they liked it and
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: laughed at it, kept it in. So clearly our instincts
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Tim were spot on.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Jeff. I'm sure Joe doesn't remember this, but there was
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: a scene that we had where the writers, so I'm
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: one of the writers, TV guys whatever, and we're at
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: a party and they have a bunch of actresses playing
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: hookers and they're they're dressed like hookers. And the girl
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: that I am talking to in heels is legitimately six
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: foot six and I am four and I have to
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: talk to her and she's a hooker in the show.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: And the producer looks at me and goes, just just
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: try to be natural, and I said natural, there's nothing
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: natural about this foot and a half taller than me,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: and she's a hooker.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: What am I supposed to do?
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: And it's a short guy's nightmare to be talking to
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: a woman two feet taller than you. Then you stick
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: a camera in my face and I'm really nervous to
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: talk to a woman.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, although it was far away from reality from the
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: child that I had. We'll say that.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: For so Joe off of Brockmeier.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: We'll get to baseball again in a minute. But it's
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: just been announced that you are going to be the
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: host of ESPN Jeopardy. So could you explain how that happened,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: why they chose you, did you volunteer for it, and
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: what do you think about all this?
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah? I'm excited, you know. I got when they were
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: going through when Alex passed away, and they went through
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: one guest host after another, probably the most famous of
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: which was Aaron Rodgers doing a week. I think he
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: might have done two. I was in that mix. Now
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: I showed up there. It's like when I've done GMA.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: I just did it this year as a host a
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: few times. And there's a very freeing way to go
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: about something like that when you don't want the job.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: I didn't want the full time, Yeah, but I wanted
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: to say A that I had done Jeopardy, and B
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: I wanted to see if I could do it well
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: and I knew from the reaction from the people in
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: the studio that, you know, on their scale of who
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: handled it well, I was toward the better half. Let's
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: say that, without trying to toot my own horn, that
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: that the crew I got through it, and I was comfortable.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: I think doing live sports and kind of going flying
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: by the seat of your pants, not knowing if somebody
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Matt Stairs is going to rip a home run deep
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: into the night at Dodger Stadium. I think kind of
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: that plays into, you know, being able to think on
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: your feet do a game show like that, and then
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: also follow their rules. So this came about. It was
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: a typical agent thing, Hey is this something you'd be
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: interested in? And the more I thought about it, I mean,
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: I live in Saint Louis, so you know they shoot
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: all this stuff in LA and maybe New York from
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: time to time, but predominantly LA. I said, if this
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: is like a limited engagement deal, then yeah, I would
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: like to do it. And I kind of know how
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: the show works a little bit. I just hung up
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: with the producers of it, so I just as the
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: first time I've talked to any of them. It's very
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: similar to what I did four or five years ago
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: when I when I, you know, sat in for a week,
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: sat in with the band. And what you realize when
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: you do Jeopardy is it is so special to people
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: who are lifers with that show that if you take
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: it in any different direction, or you don't use the
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: exact words that Alex used, you're going to fail. So
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: it's not a bet, it's a wager. You know. The
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: way he walks on stage, he thanks Johnny who introduces him,
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: and then he goes right into introducing the players and
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: then right back to the board and what the category
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: is are. So it's going to be a lot of that.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: It's going to be predominantly ESPN personalities that are going
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: to be on this show, but it's it's going to
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: be from the world of sports a wide range. It's
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: not just going to be MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA. There's
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: going to be soccer and rugby and sailing and you
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: know whatever else there's you could under the sun that
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: you could put on a sports show. But I'm excited.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: I think it'll be fun. We shoot next week. It's
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: been very quick, so I don't I don't, I don't
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: know a ton of details other than it's going to
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: be very similar to what I did four or five
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: years ago.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: H Joe, I'm thirteen years older than you. Do you
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: remember Arn't Fleming the original? H? Yes, I grew up
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: watching him. I mean even more than Alex Trebek. When
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: I was growing up, Art Fleming was the guy and
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: he used to sing the clues to the you know,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: if he had a music category, he used to sing it.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: He was great.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: You remember him, right? I remember I worked with him.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: He had a weekly appearance on Camox Radio in Saint Louis.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure if he was originally from Saint Louis,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: but back when I was starting, when I was literally
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: nineteen years old, twenty years old, he would come on
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: on Sundays, I believe, and every once in a while
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: I'd get a chance to sit in. I met him,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: I don't know, ten or eleven times he'd be in the studio.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I do remember that. I think everybody credits
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Alex Rebec. I think that's when it became more mainstream
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: and you realize when you watch, Like when I hosted
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: that show, I bought his book. I read his book
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: in one day the day before I went in there,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: and what resonated with me out of his book was
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: him saying that I am not meaning Alex not the
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: star of the show. The clues are the knowledge is
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: the show is the star of the show, for lack
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: of a better way to put it. And he's right,
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: you know, Alex wasn't on camera that much during the
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: course of a half hour. The difference is with this
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: show not to get two in the weeds and I'll
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: shut up here in a second, is it's an hour
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: It's an hour long show, so it's not as hurried.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: There's triple jeopardy in this it's not as hurry. You're
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: going to get to know the contestants instead of just hey,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: well he says here that you ate a donut once
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: while riding a unicycle. Tell us about that and then
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: they go back to the game. It's going to be
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: you know, we're going to get to know I think
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: have some moments for late kind of moments in the
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: show that'll it'll be fun.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Right. So Joe, during the ninety four World Series, which
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: of course got canceled, Sports Illustrated sent me to do
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the International League World Series between the Richmond Braves and
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the Charlotte Knights. So I'm in the Knights clubhouse one
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: day and I walk past the player's lab and Jeopardy
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: is on in the background, and I just walk by
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: and I see poetry, and then I see a guy come,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: a player come running out of the lounge and he's
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: yelling and screaming and celebrating. And I looked at Tim Jones,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: a little infielder, and I said, did that guy get
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the final Jeopardy answer in poetry? And Tim Jones said, no, No,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: we're baseball players. That's not how we play. We play
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: if you guess the final Jeopardy category.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: You win.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: So this guy guessed poetry and he won.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, Well that's so funny. I mean, I
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: and look, this is going to be I hosted Jeopardy
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: for a week. I would say I knew four percent
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: of the actual correct questions or responses or whatever you
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: want to say. I it's I'm a moron. But I
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: do remember Tim Jones, he played for the Cardinals.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Yes, there you go.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, So, Joe, your dad inducted into the Hall of Fame.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: You yourself will be inducted this summer. Congratulations once again. Now
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: I will not be inducted into the Hall of Fame
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: as a country radio host. I don't see my destination
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: being Cooperstown anytime soon, but maybe something in Nashville that'd
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: be cool. But nonetheless, I was present for my dad's
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: induction back in twenty twenty two. And there's a rule
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: on this podcast, Joe, We're not allowed to compliment my
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: dad or else he starts to shut the guest up
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: or me up, So we're just gonna leave it there.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: There he is, is he already give me the hand?
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: So I feel that's how I feel about it. I
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: don't you know, but you I see a therapist for
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: this stuff. I am my dad's There is no place
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: that I can go that my dad has not been before, right,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: And so you know I had. If there was a
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: negative of being Jack Buck's Sun, it was that. I
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: think when I started, I was compared to, you know,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: this incredible broadcaster who had this huge footprint in the
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: city of Saint Louis. And there I was this at
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: the time, I was twenty one doing the Cardinals, and
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: it's like, man, this is a high wire act right now,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: or I'm trying to land this plane and make sure
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: that people know that I'm worthy of this position, and
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: I really wasn't. I mean, I had put two years
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: of minor league baseball into my system and that was it. So,
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: you know, I tip my cap to Tim and the
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: people that have come before me. I feel like being
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: my dad's kid. Even though I'm fifty six, I still
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: feel like I'm the twenty one year old doing the Cardinals.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: It's a weird phenomenon and there's an imposter syndrome thing
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: going on with me, but I totally get it. You know,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: when I got the Pete Rosell Award in the NFL
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: and they announced it live on TV, and I got
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: a text message from Marcus Allen on my phone and
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: it said, like, brother, welcome to the Hall of Fame.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: I was like, Marcus, No, I got an award from
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: the Hall of Fame. It means so much and it's
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: really cool. But you earned your way into the Hall
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: of Fame. And to a lesser degree, I feel that
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: way even here. Although you know, I'm proud of everything
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: I've done, proud of everything I got to do, and
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm going to take it all in. I'm
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: going to do my best that weekend to set my
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: insecurities aside and really try to be present with my
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: family and enjoy it as best I can.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: Well, I show you feeling of being a son of
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: a broadcaster. The day I stepped foot on Syracuse University's
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: campus in my com one O seven first class, the
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: teacher at the front watched my last name terribly, no disrespect.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: It's not an easy last name, especially if you're not
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: a fan of baseball. And instead of me correcting, somebody
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: in the front row corrected her, Oh, that's Kirkchin and
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: she said, is that you? And I'm in the back
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: with my hand raised because they now recognize Oh gosh,
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: that tiny little guy in the back with that squeaky voice,
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: that's Tim Kirkshen's son. We gotta go get him on
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: the radio station or whatever. It doesn't matter. Nonetheless, celebrating
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: my dad at Cooperstown that weekend was really special. You're
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: gonna get your chance to celebrate your career with your family.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: What was it like celebrating your dad and knowing, you know,
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: this is a big deal for the family when he
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: was going in.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Honest to god, Jeff, it was the happiest and
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: the most proud I ever saw my father, and that's
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: you know, he was an ego list guy. He was
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: somebody that grew up during the Depression. He was a
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: World War Two that didn't have much as a kid,
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: only went to college because of the gi Bill wounded
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: at the bridge at Remagan was in Paris the day
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: World War Two ended. I you know, goes to Ohio
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: State only because the government pays for it. They tell
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: him he's never going to amount to anything, especially as
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: an announcer, and just worked his way, you know, to
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: Saint Louis, eventually working with Harry Carey, and then Harry
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: moves on and my dad takes over and his career
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: was I think it was kind of a really big
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: moment for him to look back on everything he had
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: been through and be proud of what he had accomplished.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: And so when I think of that time, I think
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: of my dad. After the ceremony at the Oda Saga Hotel,
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: normally he would do the preamble to the song Danny Boy,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: talking about this old man in Ireland who was about
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: to send his last son off to war as other
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: sons had been killed in war. And now he's that's
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: what the song's about. Oh Danny boy, the pipes are
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: calling that you got go to war. But he would
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: tell the preamble, then somebody else would sing it. My
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: dad was so hammered that he thought, not only am
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: I call the three amble, I'm going to sing it.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: And I remember sitting there like, oh God, this is
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: all He couldn't sing. It was terrible, but it was
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: just like the freest I ever saw him, because he
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: was that proud. And I think it is as much
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: about your family. I'm sure for your dad, it was
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: as much about you as any piece of it. And
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: so now my mom's still alive. I was sitting next
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: to my mom when my dad went in in nineteen
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: eighty seven. My mom will be there. I've got a
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: daughter who's about to be thirty. She will be thirty
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: at that point. I've got another daughter that'll be twenty seven,
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: and then eight year old twin boys, and I'm going
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: to see what it does for them, because I remember
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: what it was like for me. So I again trying
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: to be present, trying to be aware of what this
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: means to not just my career but everybody around me.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: I'm going to do my best to enjoy.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Joe I don't want to scare you here, But I
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: was there for Tony gwyn going in the Hall of Fame.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: And it's nine o'clock on induction Sunday, and I see
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Tony Gwynn Junior in the lobby of the Oda Saga
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: and he looked. I said, how's your dad doing? He said,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: he sent me down here to get a beer for him.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: It's nine o'clock in the morning on a Sunday, and
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: his dad was so nervous. He felt like he needed
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: a beer. And then Tony Junior looks at me and
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: goes and my dad doesn't drink, so he was going
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: to start drinking on the day he was going into
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame. That's how nervous he was. Career
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: three point thirty eight hitter never ever had a problem
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: getting to hit in a big spot in front of
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand, but speaking in front of all those people,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: he felt like he needed a beer on Sunday morning
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: of induction, and then of course he goes out and
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: crushes his speech. It just shows you, Joe, what kind
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: of impact, how big a moment that is for your dad,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: It's going to be for you, and it was for
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Tony Gwynn and he crushed it.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I willically I wing these things that
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: will not be winged, that will be everywhere you try
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: to in the ten minutes allotted. Think I have a
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: long list, but you got to weigh it at least
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: I do of you know, between I don't want a
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: laundry list or just ten minutes of people that I think.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: You've got to make it entertaining, I think to some degree,
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: and so finding that balance will be something that I'll
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: work on. I have not done it. It bounces around
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: in my head from time to time. But I will
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: sit down and go to work in a library. I
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: can't do it at home, it's too loud here, but
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: I will go somewhere and try to write out exactly
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: how I feel, because you know, there is all that
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: stuff that I said about, you know, my where, what's
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: in my head, and what's in my heart, and how
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: much I owe my dad and how you know, on
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: and on and on and my mom. I mean, you know,
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: there there is truth to that, to that saying that
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: you know behind my dad was a great Carol Buck
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: who handled everything when my dad was gone and was
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: kind of father and mother for my sister and me
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: and filled in a lot of gaps, and uh, it's
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: it's a it's a village effort to try to get
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: somebody out doing what we do, uh, you know, and
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: and so those people will have to be thanked, you know,
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: from the bottom of my heart.
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: Joe question. My dad found out he was going into
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: the Hall of Fame while he was in the self
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: service scanning line at the local Harris Teeter. That's when
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: he got the call, bleep bleep, And he gets the
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: call and he's like, hold on, let me get my
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: cart and across the page, let me get my receipt.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: Where were you when you got that call?
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: I was in Mexico. I fully, you know this. This
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: is gonna everybody will be asleep by the time I
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: finish this, and I will be as quick as I can.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: But they changed the voting the way broadcasters get voted,
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: where it used to be the national Guys every three years.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: And I liked my chances on that one, But then
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: now everybody's in the same pool. And to me, broadcasting
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: is really more about the local broadcast and the Harry
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Kallises and Jack Buck and Harry Carey and Vince Scully
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: who did both, but is really the Dodgers announcer and
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: on and Ernie Harwell and on and on and on
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: and and so I thought, you know, eventually, because I
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: was lucky enough to do twenty four World Series, you
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: know it'll it'll, the arrow will point to me at
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: some point. But I did not think it was going
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: to be this year. I know I have Bob Costas
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: to thank for it being this year, because I know
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: he went to bat for me in those you know
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: rooms and on those conference calls. So I was not
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: expecting it. And I was actually talking to a friend
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: of mine in Mexico who grew up in Cooperstown, of
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: all things, and I buddy of mine was at a
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: golf tournament and buddy of mine said, oh, Joe's waiting
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: to find out if he's going to get into the
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: Hall of Fame. I was aware of it. This guy,
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: justin Morano walked up. I said, oh, how ironic, I said, Justin,
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: tell my friend where he grew up. He's like, I
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: grew up in Cooperstown and not one I'll not exaggerate.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Not eight seconds after he said that, did a call
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: from a Cooperstown area code come in. I was like,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: oh my god, my heart stopped. And my friend's got
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: a picture of me getting the call. I'm sure nobody
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: was in line taking picture of Tim when he got
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: the call, but I have a picture of me getting
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: the call telling me that the Ford Frick Award was
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: going to me this year. So it was really cool,
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: and I was floating on air.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: You know, I did call the Harris Teeter to try
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: to get the anti theft camera video care to have
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: those in the self, so we couldn't get a hand
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: of that. It's very private information.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Well I have to tell you one story, even though
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I don't do this very well. So I start to
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: cry at the Harris Teeter when I win the award. Okay,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: the next morning, Johnny Bench calls me at my house,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: the greatest catcher of all time. It says, Tim, welcome
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: to the club. You're one of us now. And of course,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: let's be clear, I'm not one of them. I'm not
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: in their club. I'm a writer, a dinky little writer.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: I'm not a baseball player. But then he says to me, Joe,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: he says, Tim, it's moments like this that take you
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: back to little league. And I was just about ready
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: to cry again, and Johnny Bench said, and Tim, let's
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: face it still fit into a Little League uniforms. The
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: greatest catcher of all time is blasting me for being
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: four foot eight. And I thought, this is the greatest
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: thing has ever happened to me. A called me and
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: then he made fun of me. It was tremendous. That's awesome.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: I actually got a call from Johnny Bench too, so
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: maybe that's his deal, like he reaches out to people,
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: and that's really cool of him, because not only did
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: I I was beyond blown away he by him calling
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: be greatest catcher ever. And then you know, he did
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: games with my dad. So he was actually doing the
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: game with my dad on CBS radio during the San
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: Francisco earthquake, and my dad told me, I was I
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: was in college and I was watching, and I knew
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: my mom and dad were there in the stadium. And
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: that's when Al was talking and the video shaking and
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: you don't really know what's going on, and I knew
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: my parents were there. Obviously, thankfully, everything's okay. But my
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: dad told me afterward that when the booth started to shake,
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: Johnny got up and ran to the back of the booth,
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: and my dad turns like, what the hell do you
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: think you're going? I was like, what are you do?
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: We're gonna ride this thing down if it comes down.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: But there's nowhere to go right now. You're not getting
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: out of the stadium before this earthquakes over. So yeah,
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: it is cool though that that there are a few
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: whether it's Marcus Allen in the NFL or or Johnny Bench,
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: that they want to welcome you to the club because
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: this is it's the best we got and and so
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: I don't I don't take that lightly or for granted either.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Speaking of the best we got, you must have had
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: an amazing upbringing that you would walk around one corner
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: and there's Bob Gibson, and then there's Lou Brock, and
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: then there's Stan Muse, then there's Ozzie Smith, and you
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: crossed all of these guys. Tell us a Stan musical
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: story that is personal to you from one of the
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: times that you met him.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you have a million a million. Yeah, it's
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: had you said, hey, email me an old cardinal to
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: talk about. He would be the guy because he was
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: my dad's closest friend. I was born in nineteen sixty nine.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: So I'm not going to sit here and pretend like, oh,
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: I used to go down to the ballpark and watch
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: him play. That's not the case. I knew him as
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: my dad's friend. Now then you learn who he was,
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: and you know what he meant to people and the
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: kind of person he was. He was, as you know,
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: one of the greatest, sweetest people to ever walk the planet.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: Like legit, as good as they come, as far as
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: any superstar, greatest of He's the best person that I've
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: ever met. But I will say this first of all,
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: he and my dad used to play golf every Monday
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: at a place uh here in Saint Louis, a public
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: golf course. Neither one were members of a country club.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Uh it was yeah, yes.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Stand usually let Joe Buck played a public links course.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: No, Jock fuck not Joe. So yeah, no, they were
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: not members. They played this place way out west. Uh
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: but Museial. People would gather if it was Stan Musial
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: in Saint Louis. On the first t everybody hush crowd.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: And his thing was, I I I like I like
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: I like noise when I'm hitting. I like noise when
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: I'm hit. So everybody had to like hear when he
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: teed off everybody once did quiet. He wanted everybody to cheer.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: But I will say this. You want a personal story,
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: My dad spent the last seven months of his life
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: in the hospital, and uh, he was in the ICU
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: for damn near the full seven months, and it was
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: it was not good, and he was deteriorating and his
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: it was not a pretty site either. It was all family,
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: no friends except one, and that one was Stan Musial
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: And every time he came to visit my dad, he
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: brought a bag of autograph baseballs and would hand them
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: out to the nurses, the doctors, the people cleaning up
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: the room, you name it. And I heard him, if
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: I heard him once say it once, I heard him
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: say ten times, you take care of my buddy. And
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: that was you know, you know, when when you're at
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: you're on your back, you're at your lowest. My dad
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: could not have been any lower. And we didn't let
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: a lot of people quote unquote behind the curtain. Stan
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: came made a difference bright in my dad's day. So
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: it was not just a baseball announcer, baseball player Hall
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: of Fame kind of relationship. If it was real it
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: was legit. And you know, I'm sure you have a
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: short list. I have a short list of people, very
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: short list of people who I've met in this business
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: or doing what I do that if I was in
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: the position my dad was in, then I would want
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: them to see me in that state. But uh, but
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Stan was was one of one outside the family. That's
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: that's what he meant to to the Bucks.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Right, Jeff, tell tell Joe Buck your your lou Brock
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: story from when we met him in Cooperstown.
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, Joe, you grew up around a baseball dad,
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: and so you have moments that you remember when you
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: were as you were a kid, being around the clubhouse,
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: being around the broadcast booth. And we were at Cooperstown,
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: we were at the Oda Saga and Uh, I got
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: introduced to lou Brock, and of course I'm a kid,
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: I'm respectful, I smile, I shake a hand, eye contact,
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: and he looks at me and said, you've got a
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: great smile.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: You've got a great smile.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: And it just stuck with me because I was trained
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: by my dad and my mom. For that matter of Jeff,
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: You're gonna have opportunity to meet some pretty incredible people
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: in your life, and you're gonna shake their hand, You're
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: gonna look them in the eye. You're gonna say, you know, yes, ma'am, yes, sir.
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: You aren't gonna answer with just yes or no. You're
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: gonna give a little more context. It's a yes and situation,
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: be present in the conversation, listen and respond and the
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: whole thing. And I'll never forget that, lou Brock. I mean,
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: just one of the coolest moments. And again, Joe, I
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: didn't grow up watching him. I'm born in ninety three,
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: but then that made me rabbit hole into his career
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: and wow, just amazing.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: Joe. I was there twenty minutes.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Twenty minutes lou Brock gave our ten year old son
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: and said that smile of yours. Nothing disarms a person
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: better than a great smile, So keep smiling.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: That's lou Brock, right. So outside of where I'm sitting
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: right now in my office, I have stuff hanging on
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: the wall, and I have a base, a baseball base,
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: but it's like a sandbag kind of. It's like a
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: little league base, and it's it's shadow boxed, and it
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: says to Joe, my man far out Lou Brock, which
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: like the most seventies thing that you could ever write
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: for that far out, but it's so cool, and Lou
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: Lou was just the absolute sweetest human being you could
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: ever meet, and and just gentle and you know, obviously
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: just lethal on the field with you know what he
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: could do. I was there the night that he broke
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: the three thousand hit barrier, and it was the perfect
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: way to do it. I believe it was Dennis Lamp
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: pitching for the Chicago Cubs at Bush Stadium, and I
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: was sitting with my mom in an extra broadcast booth
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: because all those games weren't on TV like they are now.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: And Dennis Lamp, you know, he knows Lou Brock. Sitting
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: on two nine and ninety nine, he knocks lou Brock
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: on his back with a pitch up and d and
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: the very next pitch, WU rockets off Dennis Lamp. It
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: hits Dennis Lamp and trickles away. That was his three
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: thousandth hit. That's one of my most vivid memories as
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: a little kid. And when you rattled off those guys,
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: Tim about who stuck around the Cardinal organization. Bob Gibson
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: Lou Brock, Red shand East Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith. What
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: they all have in common are just a great people.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: And so they were unbelievable at what they did on
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: the field, but they were just equally great human beings.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: So I was very lucky to learn about baseball, about
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: cardinal baseball, but about baseball from really wonderful humans that
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: took an interest in having me around. I was lucky
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: that my dad, you know, brought me in the room
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: with him, and without that, I'm probably not talking to
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: you right now. I was lucky enough to know that
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: when my dad got the deep voice going and he
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: was in his office and he was on the phone,
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: he was doing an interview, and if I was six,
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: I couldn't act like a six year old. I had
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: to sit there and be quiet if I wanted to
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: watch my dad do what he did. And and I
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: learned that early, and that's what got me, you know,
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: the key to the door. And I sat in there
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: and watched him do everything, you know, every chance I got.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: So I was really lucky, right joke, Just give us
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: one Bob Gibson story. I have twenty of them. You
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: have twenty thousand of them. Give us a favorite Bob
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Gibson moment for you.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's I don't want to keep being repetitive,
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: but I it was. It was more, you know, the
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: human side of him, I the baseball side. Yeah, I mean, obviously,
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: my favorite if you want to say Bob Gibson, what
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: comes to my mind immediately is my dad calling Bob
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: Gibson no hitter, and they replayed it on MLB radio
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: not too long ago. And what I love about it
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: is my dad's famous calls. You know, go crazy, folks
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: go crazy, the Kirk Gibson home run, I don't believe
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: what I just saw. All that stuff's great, but my
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: favorite call of my dad's is a Bob Gibson no
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: hitter because my dad loved Bob as a human. My
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: dad loved the power of what he did on the mound,
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: and my dad was an easy cry. And when I
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: hear him call the final out, which was a strikeout,
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: I hear my dad's voice cracked because he's emotional. He's
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: crying while he's calling it, and that speaks to you know,
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: what he thought of Bob, what he thought of the
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: magic of a no hitter in baseball. But he goes
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: it's a strike call, a strike call, and a no
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: hitter for Gibson, And that's him, I know it. It's
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: not him being loud in his voice just cracked. That's
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: him crying. And so yeah, I mean yeah, I worked
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: to McCarver for eighteen years, so anytime we were around
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: Bob Gibson, it was, you know, Gibson just cracking on Mcarver.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: You know those those stories that are true, like you know,
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: Mcarver trotting out there in his catching gear and Gibson
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: telling them get back behind the plate. Mccarvery, the only
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: thing you know about hitting is it's hard, like I
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: don't want to hear it. And that's that's who he was.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: Or him getting fined for hitting somebody and I think
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: it was Doug Harvey or somebody who was the umpire
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: and said, you know, that's gonna be fifty dollars, and
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: Gibson's line was, I'll keep hitting him. I got a
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: lot of fifty dollars. Just great stuff that, you know,
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: just coloring kind of the edges of the game that
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: make it the great game that it is.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: All right, Joe, we're gonna let you go. Just give
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: us one. What was it like covering Opening Day and
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Ozzie Smith would run onto the field and do a
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: backflip on Opening Day at Bush Stadium As a broadcaster,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: what was that like to watch that?
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: You know, I think every fan thinks that their team's
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: opening day. I mean it's a holiday, it's a national holiday.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: It should be. But I think every fan thinks their
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: team's opening day is the best because it just immediately
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: brings back all the good memories. You know, everybody starts flat,
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: nobody's in first place, nobody's in last place. There's hope,
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe this is our year, all that stuff.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: In Saint Louis, we have the Clydesdale's, the hitch going
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: around the warning track. It's very special. But there was
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: nothing like Ozzie when he came here. You know, I
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: real quick when he came here. My dad is the
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: one who got him at the airport and took him
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: around Saint Louis, took him to Camweks Radio, then took
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: him to our house and I got to play catch.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: What I've been twelve years old, got to play catch
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: with Ozzy in front of our house, and I gave
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: him one of my gloves. I get my glove. And
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: he had this ability. The things too narrow, but he
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: would hold his hand out. He was hold his hand
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: out here, and he could make the ball just pop
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: into his bare hand here without moving anything. And but
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: what needed to happen was he needed to throw the
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: ball to a specific spot. And I was so nervous.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: I couldn't throw the ball there. It was like, no,
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: just throw it here, you know my voice, just throw
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: it here. I'm like, I'm trying. I can't do it.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: He's like, you know, catching short hops and jumping up
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: the catch. He's like, no, here, let's shoot you a
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: cool trick. Just throw it right here. I'm like, I
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: wish I could, but I I yeah. It was. It
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: was amazing to watch him take in field, just something
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: as simple as that, and to watch him work his
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: magic with his feet in his arm and his glove
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: around second base. There's nobody that ever did it like him,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: not before, not since, in my opinion. So when he
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: did the backflip, it was just like everybody was waiting
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: for it, and he always landed it. He never messed
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: it up. And you know, I'm sure he was nervous
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: to do it, especially at the end of his career
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: in ninety six, but he did it, and people that
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: they were in the stadium never never forgot it.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: Right, Joe, we've kept you for an hour. It could
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: have kept you for five hours with all these great stories.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: I will see you in Cooperstown, certainly before then, but
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: I will see you in Cooperstown, and I will. I'm
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: warning you that after you make your speech, Johnny Bench
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: is going to take you on to the verandah of
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: the Oda Saga and have another moment with you. I'm serious,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: and you better be ready for that because it'll be
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: as powerful a moment that you've had in this business.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: I promise you that. And I will deliver you a
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: beer at nine o'clock in the morning that Sunday if
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: you want me to just to get you through, Okay.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: One percent, Yes, I will drink that beer, I promise you.
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: Joe Buck, thank you so much for joining us. This
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: a great game or what. It's so special to have you,
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: and you know, joining a father son podcast as a
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: great father son duo as you are, there's no better
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: fitting guests and Joe Buck On'm checks so thank you
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: for your time.
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: Thanks Guys, my pleasure loved it.