Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I don't know who had a more tiresome, wall-to-wall schedule than my father, and I know what it's like to be a kid in that situation. He was gone a lot. He needed to be. I understood it. So did my mom.
I don't think men like losing their hair, I don't think that's a newsflash. When you see people, start from Donald Trump and go down, you realize people will do anything to have some coverage up there.
I kind of feel like curling combines this weird vision of people sliding down a lane, and it looks like it combines bowling and every bar game I've ever played. But I still don't understand what the hell it is.
I got a chance to host the 'Late Late Show' for two nights before they hired Craig Ferguson. I enjoyed it, but nothing can replace the thrill of calling an NFC championship game or a Super Bowl or a World Series.
You need to have a great, strong bladder to call professional sports because, especially in football where, you know, you don't know how long a half's going to last and then the timeouts happen and a incomplete pass.
People would ask, 'Why is your vocal cord paralyzed?' I said it was a virus. I didn't say it was an elective procedure to add hair to the front of my head. It was embarrassing. There's an embarrassing element to that.
In 1999, when Ted Williams came out and saluted the fans at the All Star Game at Fenway, I had a huge lump in my throat, and the producer is yelling in my ear to talk, and I couldn't, thankfully, and it was much better.
I enjoy the mental gymnastics that go along with matching voice to picture and vice versa and trying to accent the action as opposed to provide all of the action through my words. And that's really what play-by-play is.
I don't think we know who a lot of these athletes are. We think we do, but they're never allowed to be themselves. Because the minute they try, people are saying, What's wrong with him? Why is he drawing attention to himself?
You're open to minute-by-minute criticism which comes via Twitter, that starts seeping its way into your head, and it's easy to let that affect how you do the game... it was a nice moment when I got to take that off my phone.
Only one time have I had Twitter open when I was doing a game, and after that I took it off my phone. I said, 'This is so counterproductive. I'm actually reacting to people reacting to what I'm saying, and it can't work that way.'
Most of the time, if someone gives me trouble at a bar or something, saying, 'Why do you hate the Red Sox or Patriots?' they end up buying you a drink or whatever. They like to be heard, say their piece, and then talk about the team.
I'm my dad's kid, and I'm still, right or wrong, fighting that uphill battle, and I'm not saying that makes sense. I mean my dad didn't hire me at Fox... but it certainly gave me my start, and I think I'm always kind of fighting that.
People know Troy Aikman as a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. That carries tremendous weight. Because he really guards against overexposure, or just saying stuff for effect. When he really says something that's critical, people notice.
Nobody's tuning in - let's check the TV Guide listings and see what game Joe Buck is calling. Nobody cares. They want to see the Cubs. They want to see the Packers. They want to see the Cowboys. They don't care who's calling the game.
I started in radio. I enjoy the mental gymnastics that go along with matching voice to picture and vice versa and trying to accent the action as opposed to provide all of the action through my words. And that's really what play-by-play is.
Whether it's a steroid conversation, or a player who gets into trouble, whatever it may be. Because of that, it makes you wonder what you can do if you had a little more space. That's the fun of the show for me - I have an hour worth of space.
My dad used to get to the nastiest letters. But somebody had to take the time to type it, stamp it, send it to him, send it to the radio station. And I mean nasty stuff. It's not like nasty people with nasty opinions just popped up out of nowhere.
I certainly don't feel like I have a monopoly on [opinions] because I have the job at FOX - any one of a thousand people could have the job. There are people out there that have just as educated an opinion on what I'm calling or describing as I do.
I'm out there to be real, and I think people respond to that. If you have some image that you're protecting, eventually people get sick of it, and I can't imagine living that way for an entire lifetime. I'd rather just be who I am, and that's good enough.
The point that I would make is it's easy for somebody like me to be critical of Colin Kaepernick, but I haven't suffered some of the same issues that Colin Kaepernick has. On some level, it's like, how dare I weigh in on what Kaepernick is doing or feeling?
I think Jeff [Van Gundy] is really, really good and fun to listen to. And I would be disappointed if - I know he offered to not be a part of the broadcast - he wasn't on the air. We'd all miss something. I think the [brother situation] adds the human element.
[If you could have 10 minutes in a room with Barry Bonds] ... I'd ask him for another half hour. And then I'd probably start with the obvious and see how honest he would get. I just think those guys are so protected, that you're not going to get much out of them.
Great as my dad was - I would never have gotten my first job announcing if I didn't have the last name Buck - it's my mom, Carole, who has made the biggest difference. She was on Broadway back in the 1960s. She understands entertainment, has incredible instincts.
But I tell people all the time that if you can do the job, then there's a spot for you. I refuse to believe that there isn't any room in this business. People leave jobs and jobs open up every year. If you can do the job, you'll find your way into the broadcast booth.
I just consider Boston and New England incredible sports fans. If they give me trouble, think I'm rooting for other side, it's mainly because they're living and dying with every pitch and every play and think I'm rooting for the other side. I'd much rather that than apathy.
It's a different world for those of us who are doing this for a living. Certainly a lot different than my dad had to deal with when he was calling games on a national level for CBS. It's just a different world. I'm not saying it's better or worse, there's just a lot more access.
My dad worked so hard. He slept in his own bed maybe half the nights of the year because of road assignments, but even when he was home, he was covering games. It put a lot of pressure on my mom. She brought in her parents to help out, and it took a village to raise us. I was lucky.
It's kind of my intention to be myself on the show. My main priority on FOX is to do play-by-play. Nobody's tuning in to listen to me. If I didn't show up to do the games, people would watch, and the ratings probably wouldn't be all that different. That's not why people are watching.
I mean, I've done college basketball, a horse race, a bunch of different things and they'd blow by but golf has a frenetic pace of bouncing around from shot to shot and green to green and, in essence, acre to acre over this huge plot of land with over 150 players who are their own team.
When I visited KU, I thought, 'I wish I'd gone to Kansas.' They would take me around to their spots, and my spots at Indiana just felt like old hangouts. It was one of those times where you always wished you were somewhere else. But I was happy I ended up at Indiana coming from small little St. Louis.
I know what baldness can do to a man. When you see guys with a toupee that should come with a chinstrap, or somebody whose been through hair replacement surgery and tapped out early because it's too painful, you realize guys will do anything to maintain their sense of virility. They don't want to give up looking young.
Broadcasting golf is not like broadcasting baseball or football. You see the ball and the action through your own eyes. The story is unfolding in front of you. In golf, the story is unfolding here and there and everywhere. As the guy in the broadcast tower, you're getting it all on screens and from reporters in the field. It's a tricky business.
You have to make that stand out from the rest of the three hours. There are times when I'm having fun and being loose, and there are times when I'm ultra serious - calling the Giants/Patriots in the Super Bowl is a lot different than calling the Giants/Cubs game last Saturday. There are different levels of intensity, and I try to respect that when I'm doing it.
I get questions from Richard Sandomir at the New York Times or Michael Hiestand at USA Today about issues .., 'well, there's a blog site that says you root too hard for the Red Sox. Or people don't like you because you're rooting against their team ...'I don't want to say it's bad. There are certainly things you learn from the internet. You certainly learn from people's opinions. I think you're going to get some of the negative a lot more than the positive, but I think you can learn from it.
