Joe Buck gets Hall of Fame’s Frick Award, joins Jack to become first father-son duo to earn honor

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 majority of World Series games on television On Wednesday Buck received a call that he thought was at least a sparse years down the line when he revealed out he received the Ford C Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting by baseball s Hall of Fame Buck is not only the th 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 until and was the lead announcer on CBS baseball package in and received the award in I am shocked in a great number of approaches I didn t think this was coming right now Buck declared 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 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 bliss and the pride that he had for what he had done Joe Buck will receive the award during the Hall s July awards presentation in Cooperstown a day ahead of induction ceremonies At Buck becomes the second-youngest Frick Award winner trailing only Vin Scully who was when he was named the winner Buck grew up in St Louis and called games for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds in and after graduating from Indiana University He joined his father for Cardinals broadcasts in a job Joe held through Jack Buck died in June at age 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 invariably 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 yearned 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 selected 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 unfailingly resonated with me Buck joined Fox Sports when it started doing NFL games in 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 season and received the Frick Award in Buck was when he called his first World Series in He would go on to do the Fall Classic in and then annually from - His 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 World Series games on radio and television Buck also worked All-Star Games and League Championship Series for Fox before joining ESPN in as the voice of Monday Night Football Since going to ESPN Buck called a tournament on Opening Day last year and worked a Cardinals encounter with Chip Caray in Buck mentioned there is the possibility of doing a couple more games for ESPN in the future I think of myself as a baseball announcer possibly first because that s what I was around the preponderance I love the encounter I m a fan of the challenge he disclosed I still dream as a baseball announcer at night I think all announcers have the same nightmare where you show up at a encounter 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 inevitably 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 continuous years of experience with a organization or group 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 past winners Brennaman Castiglione Costas Ken Harrelson Pat Hughes Jaime Jarr n 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 record AP MLB https apnews com MLB Source