Given the close St. Louis ties of Fox’s Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, the 2011 World Series will have “the bias conspirators will be out in full force,” writes The Allentown Morning-Call’s Keith Groller. I’m presuming by “conspirators”, Groller means “critics”. Unless he’s actually referring to the broadcasting duo.
“I’m accused of being biased no matter who’s playing in the World Series,” Buck said. “Over the years I’ve been accused of rooting for Anaheim, Philadelphia, Boston, New York. And I’ve always been accused of rooting against Anaheim, Philadelphia, Boston and New York. That’s the way it goes.”
McCarver said he has also received criticism every year from one city or both.
“There’s nothing in the world you can about do it, so you can’t even think about it,” McCarver said. “Joe and I are teethered at the hip when it comes to this. We can’t win.”
Buck said he will call every Cardinals home run with a certain level of excitment and he’ll call “Nelson Cruz’s 11th home run of the World Series with the same excitement. That’s how I approach it.”
He said of St. Louis: “It just happens to be the place where I still hang my hat at the end of the day.”
So Buck’s gonna call everything with a certain level of excitement. In much the same way George Patton enters every day with a certain level of being alive.
The tandem of Buck/McCarver is awful. But I’m convinced its Buck’s fault.
I caught a Fox game of the week sometime during the summer, and the announcers were McCarver and old pro Dick Stockton.
The transformation was amazing. McCarver was suddenly like the McCarver who did the Mets games in the mid-80s. He was funny, engaging, insightful, and with Stockton’s help, made for a great broadcast.
The next week, he’s back with Buck and he was back to being the same McCarver we know and can’t stand.
Buck is just terrible. He’s better at football games, but with baseball he just conveys this feeling that he is just not all that interested in the game in front of him. There’s got to be someone better out there to handle the WS.
Every deep fly is a home run when Buck is calling a game, much like the corporate crowd overreacting in the stands. I remember my first attendance of a Major League game (August of 1970)….
Where is the Eckersley, Ripken, Wells roundtable?? C’mon Fox make it happen!