Getty Images On May 24, Joe Buck will call his first MLB game since 2021
Harry Caray and Jack Buck are two legendary names in baseball broadcasting who will never be forgotten by Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals fans. The pair formed a dynamic duo on Redbird radio broadcasts from 1954 to 1969. Caray eventually departed for the Oakland Athletics for one season and then landed in the Windy City in the early 1970s.
Now, the names Caray and Buck will converge behind the microphone once again. On May 24, Joe Buck, Jack’s son, and Chip Caray, the grandson of Harry, will call the action together. They will be in the booth when the century-old rivalry between the Cubs and Cardinals resumes at Busch Stadium.
Both broadcasters say they realize how special the moment will be.
“I think it will be a blast,” Buck said, according to a May 16 story by Don Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“Any time you have a chance to spend time with a guy like Joe, it’s great,” Caray added. “Our families are so intertwined in the history of the Cardinals.”
Joe Buck & Chip Caray to Focus on the Game, Not Nostalgia
Buck. Caray. Two iconic names in broadcasting, reunited again.
Joe Buck and Chip Caray will call the Cardinals’ matchup with the Cubs on Friday, May 24. #STLCards
Caray, 59, insisted the broadcast won’t be just about reminiscing about the past. He says calling the action is still their primary focus on the night.
“The game comes first,” Caray, who calls Cardinals games for Bally Sports Midwest, said, according to Caesar’s story. “This will not be about Chip or Joe. But I’m sure we’ll be talking about his father and my grandfather.”
“It will be interesting to get Joe’s perspective on the Cardinals,” Caray said, according to Caesar. “The Buck family had some of the biggest calls in Cardinals broadcasting history, Jack’s ‘Go crazy, folks’ (on Ozzie Smith’s improbable game-winning homer in the 1985 National League Championship Series) and Joe’s ‘See you tomorrow night’ (on David Freese’s home run to end the dramatic sixth game of the 2011 World Series).”
Cardinals Return Is Big for Buck
Buck hasn’t been on a baseball broadcast since Game 6 of the 2021 World Series. He’s focused mainly on his spot as the top play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports’ NFL coverage. It’s a spot he’s held since 2002 – after originally joining the broadcast company in 1994.
Buck says his limited schedule is what originally forced him to choose the NFL over MLB. However, he pointed out how much he has missed working the booth for baseball games.
“It felt silly to do 10 games or so just to say I’m doing it,” he said. “But the more that time went by and Bill brought it up, then I got a call from (Bally Sports Midwest executive producer) Larry Mago, so why not? I was missing calling games locally more than nationally.”
Buck said on a 2022 Sports Illustrated podcast that he felt “like I’ve done all I could do” in baseball, noting “I don’t have that itch,” according to The New York Post.
Legendary Cardinals voices Joe Buck and Chip Caray will unite for special broadcast ✍️ @masonkeith25
Harry & Jack Were a Contrast in Styles
“We’re real excited,” Bally Sports Midwest general manager Jack Donovan said, also staing that Harry Caray and Jack Buck still are regarded as two of “the best play-by-play announcers of all time… The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
A contrast in styles, both Jack Buck and Harry Caray will forever be linked to some of the greatest moments in Cardinals history. However, Caray became nationally recognized as the television announcer for the Cubs broadcasts on cable superstation WGN throughout the ’80s and ’90s.
Buck provided commentary on broadcasts of MLB and the NFL for nearly 50 years. Both men went on to receive the Ford C. Frick Award and were enshrined in the broadcaster’s wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.