Social media has been harsh on Joe Buck in the decade or so that it has taken a foothold in American society.
As Fox Sports’ longtime play-by-play voice of Major League Baseball and the National Football League (World Series every season, Super Bowl every third year) and more recently golf, Buck is a target of every guy in his 50s on the computer in his mother’s basement, every dolt in a bar with a smartphone. Public figures face this, but a group of high-profile sportscasters seems to draw an inordinate amount of backlash.
Buck might be at the top of that list. But he has turned the tables this week, taking to Twitter to not only pass time during the lockdown of much of America because of the coronavirus crisis but to raise money for charitable causes, preferably helping people hurt economically by recent events. Buck, a lifelong St. Louisan, has been asking the general public to send him videos from moments in their everyday lives. He then provides a play-by-play soundtrack to some of them. “Quarantine Calls with Joe Buck” has been born, at @Buck on Twitter.
People are also reading…
• He’s calling dogs playing tug-of-war with a stick.
• There’s a kid, who looks about 3, bringing a drink to his dad.
”I can’t get any of my kids to do this doesn’t matter what age,” intones Buck, who has twin boys who are about to turn 2 with wife and fellow sportscaster Michelle Beisner-Buck, and two daughters in their 20s from his previous marriage.
• There’s a man grilling chicken wings (as of early Thursday night it had been viewed 375,000 times), and another of a fellow trying to force six Oreo cookies into his mouth.
We need to be friends. pic.twitter.com/zVtykOv6fK
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 24, 2020
• Then there’s a guy throwing darts who hits a bull’s-eye while tossing from a sharp angle.
”Tom Martin has stunned himself and the world,” Buck proclaims. Then he delivers one of the most famous lines from his father, legendary sportscaster Jack Buck. ”Go crazy folks, go crazy,” he says, albeit in much more subdued tones than when the Cardinals’ Ozzie Smith hit his improbable homer to win Game 5 of the 1985 National League Championship Series.
If there is one common theme among the 25 videos Buck has done so far (about a dozen have been posted), it’s kids and dogs. By Thursday night, they had combined for 6.6 million views.
“I didn’t want to do play-by-play of viral videos,” Buck said in an interview with the Post-Dispatch. “I did one of a marble race, but that seems too self serving. It was my idea to do videos of mundane, everyday life and make it personal to whoever sends it in. I’ll take some of the credit, but the original idea belongs to my boss.”
Did the Hackney Family create a 5th major? I would love to see @rogerfederer take on @rafaelnadal on carpet. Great job boys and thank you @hackneytraci for sending this in. #Quarantennis #goodnight pic.twitter.com/VEMfqRwLwm
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 26, 2020
That’s Eric Shanks, Fox Sports’ CEO and executive producer.
Buck first posted the Twitter call for videos last weekend, and set the table by posting a sample. His wife was holding rambunctious son Wyatt.
“Michelle on the left is trying to prepare dinner,” Buck narrates. “Wyatt on the right fighting back a yawn dressed like, kind of a half-ass Fred Flintstone. … Oh, and he’s hit his mom! He has hit his mom. Mom is playing it up. Wyatt is crying. All hell has broken loose inside this house.”
After some playful actions from mom, Wyatt is appeased.
“They’re hugging,” Buck concludes. “Everything has come back together.”
A whim
Buck said he had no idea the project would take off like it has, as it has been featured on TV’s Fox News as well as other mainstream and social media outlets.
“This has happened organically,” he said. “It wasn’t something that I thought, ‘Oh man this is going to really take off.’ I just did it on kind of a whim, so much so that I didn’t add the charitable element to it until after the fact. I was talking to somebody who said, ‘You should have people donate.’ Yeah, why not? If your video gets posted, make a donation. I have no way of following up and making sure people do it, but I hope they will do so out of common kindheartedness and helping people who need it at this time.”
Buck said he has “absolutely no sense on how much money has been raised. But I do see a lot of retweets with other people jumping on and making donations. So it hasn’t just been the people whose videos get my voice on it and retweet it, it has been friends of people who have the videos done and in some cases fans of somebody (in the public eye) who gets retweeted. It’s just a small effort of trying to do a little part from my corner of the world.”
Nuts and bolts
Buck said after clips are tweeted to him he picks out ones that are suitable then records the play-by-play. He does the work after the toddlers are in bed and the house in Ladue is quiet. He said each one only takes about 2 minutes to produce.
“I watch it once, maybe twice mainly to see how long it is,” he said. “I want to look at it fresh, not script what I will say. I try to do it like I’m seeing it for the first time and I put words to it that I haven’t thought of before I record.”
He then sends them to Fox to mesh the elements. After Fox’s legal team gives its approval, they’re returned to Buck to post.
Socially acceptable
Buck, 50, now sees a side of social media that had been mostly foreign to him — the positive end.
“Being the national guy, especially in the baseball world, has just been an eye-opening experience,” he said of being vilified by fans of that sport. They are used to having a hometown slant to regular-season broadcasts and fail to understand that network announcers speak positively about both teams and that an energetic call about something the other side does is not a slap at the face to the adversely-affected club.
But now Buck is being seen as the good guy.
“Social media in general, you see the value in it, the good in it, you see how you can reach a lot of people with one click of a mouse,” he said. “People seem to be getting a kick out of it.”
To the hundreds of thousands of people still going out and keeping people safe and doing their jobs, thank you. Great work here (not sure if this is actually you @RyanPastorino), and I can confirm this is not an #ad for any one airline. pic.twitter.com/fZo5WySD5z
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 26, 2020
It also has become personal to Buck.
“It reminds me of what my dad loved about radio back in the day, kind of having that personal-feeling relationship with listeners or the listeners with the host, breaking down that barrier,” he said. “That’s what he always loved about it, whether it was the Christmas-morning show (from the Buck house, or call-in shows). With everybody in isolation, in quarantine, I think stuff like this has some real value.
“I feel like it’s a 21st century tool that reminds me of how things used to be and what excited my dad about going downtown to jump on the air at KMOX. He got a lot of energy from that, especially at the end of his life when he was at his sickest (he died in 2002). He was still working, and that stuff kept him alive. I understand that a little better now, and I’m not saying this is to that degree.”
Looking ahead
Buck doesn’t know how long this diversion will last.
“I think it will go on until people get sick of it or we’re back to semi-normal things,” he said. “You see the cool side of people that I don’t typically get to see. And I think they’re seeing a side of me that they typically don’t get to see. It works both ways. I don’t know that people really have much of a clue about who I really am. That’s why I wrote my book (“Lucky Bastard”) and that’s what this gives me a chance to do — have good clean fun with videos, doing what I do for a World Series or Super Bowl.”
So the next time he raises his voice in praise of what someone did in a World Series game, does he expect fans of the team negatively impacted to now not become riled?
”Absolutely not,” Buck said. “The minute I’m telling one fan base, as not ‘their’ announcer, that their team just lost — it will all come back. And whoever does it after me will get the same stuff. I understand it better every year.”
Joe Buck Twitter calls
Go crazy, folks, go crazy!
I have a feeling @letitflytom has won his fair share of drinks with skills like this. @PatrickMahomes would be proud. Let us know who you are donating to @letiflytom #bluesbrothers 🎯 pic.twitter.com/WyrkK0hPB6
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 24, 2020
An in-your-face moment
Watch out Breen...if @foxsports ever gets @NBA, I'm getting ready. @AdamHoge, tag a charity and then maybe order your kid a present to make him feel better after this one 🏀. pic.twitter.com/WJMGnrmBsa
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 24, 2020
Keep your eyes on the turquoise ball
This an an ancient one from like last week. @jellesmarbles blew up the internet with this gem and informs us the blue marble is named Comet and the yellow one is Pollo Loco. That said - I did my best. My smallish brain went from “marbles” to “balls” midway thru - old habits. pic.twitter.com/DsaGuHhli6
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 24, 2020
Haters will say it's fake!
Ok Mardy. (I can only hear that in an Ozark twang). Here ya go! Now donate something!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/Pt4Q0bA0wA
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 24, 2020
Can anyone stop Bruce Wayne?
When this is all over, THIS is a sport I would still watch. “Bruce Wayne” is the greatest athlete competing right now. Thanks for the video @robertklemko, let us know who you donate to! pic.twitter.com/7rWrdbs6FO
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 25, 2020
What being a grandparent is all about
Hey @sarajbenincasa, I hope my daughters take this good care of me when I retire one day. Jon, hope you have a happy retirement, and may you keep losing games of combat with Finn for many years to come! Cheers!! pic.twitter.com/tyrl4B8dgB
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 25, 2020
Grip it and rip it from the green
If they ever reboot #HappyGilmore, we found the guy!! What do you think @adamsandler? Thanks for the video @ThereseVinal, you have a cutie here. Let us know where you donate too! pic.twitter.com/LM1W3Jjd6D
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 25, 2020
Come get me, Booyah
Booyah vs. Chance is the content we all need right now. Thanks to my @foxsports colleague @LauraOkmin for sending this in. It’s always special to take a moment and remember the great Stuart Scott. pic.twitter.com/wXpTDcRopE
— Joe Buck (@Buck) March 26, 2020