Joe Buck has a date in Cooperstown, New York, in July.
It was 39 years ago that he made his first visit to “The Home of Baseball.” In 1987, the three newest members to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum took to the podium and delivered their acceptance speeches. Jim “Catfish” Hunter, Billy Williams, and Ray Dandridge officially joined baseball’s elite club. Also, on that day, Jack Buck, Joe Buck’s father, primarily known for his many decades as the radio voice of MLB’s St. Louis Cardinals, was recognized as a Ford C. Frick Award winner.
The Frick Award has been presented annually since 1978 to a broadcaster for major contributions to baseball. Joe Buck remembers sitting in the sweltering heat among thousands of well-wishers listening to three of the game’s greatest players of all time give thanks to those who helped forge their exceptional careers. Then a senior in high school, Joe Buck was seated with his family looking at the dais filled with Hall of Famers, with the National Baseball Library directly behind them. Jack Buck was the 11th recipient of baseball’s prestigious broadcasting award. Now it’s Joe Buck’s turn to offer an acceptance speech, as the 50th recipient of the Frick Award.
“I’m blown away. This is the greatest honor I could receive,” Joe Buck said during a conference call with sportswriters after learning of being voted this year’s Frick winner. “I tend to downplay awards. It’s hard for me to accept this.”
Joe Buck said the call came from Cooperstown while he was preparing his notes for an NFL game—he is in his fourth season of handling play-by-play announcing for Monday Night Football telecasts.
Often compared to his famous father’s work behind a microphone in MLB quarters, now, Buck, the younger, will be joining broadcasting’s most exclusive club. Iconic baseball voices trusted by millions of fans for more than a century, Mel Allen, Red Barber, Vin Scully, and Curt Gowdy, now have another Buck added to their roster.
Joe Buck will be honored in Cooperstown on July 25 at the Awards Presentation held at the Alice Busch Opera Theater in Cooperstown, along with Paul Hoynes. Selected as the 2026 winner of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Career Excellence Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing, Hoynes is a longtime Cleveland baseball scribe.
Joe Buck, 56, began his career calling MLB St. Louis Cardinals’ games on both local TV and KMOX Radio, along with his father, during the 1991 season. Fresh off being the radio voice for the Cardinals’ Triple-A Louisville Redbirds and working for ESPN, Joe Buck made the jump to baseball’s big leagues. By 1996, he became the lead play-by-play voice for Major League Baseball on FOX. His partner at the network, Tim McCarver, a former MLB All-Star catcher and himself a Frick Award winner (2012), also served as Jack Buck’s analyst during national baseball telecasts on CBS.
Joe Buck’s final season broadcasting Cardinals’ game came in 2007. His increased national broadcast assignments precluded him from keeping a regular schedule with the team. Like his father, the younger Buck accepted the MLB All-Star Game and World Series tasks.
The second-youngest Frick Award winner, Joe Buck called his first World Series in 1996 at age 27. From 2000 through 2021, he called World Series play for FOX. He left the network in 2022 to join ESPN for the Monday Night Football post he enjoys today. His baseball resume includes calling 21 All-Star Games and 26 League Championship Series.
Now, a second Buck will be honored in the Hall of Fame’s “Scribes and Mikemen” exhibit in the Baseball Library. Located just one floor below where Joe Buck’s photograph and career capsule will be on display for all to see is some of the game’s greatest names— players selected to the Hall of Fame’s first Class elected in 1936. Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson have their plaques prominently placed in the gallery. When the Class of 1936 was officially inducted on June 12, 1939, in Cooperstown, this was the beginning of annually recognizing the best ballplayers in the game’s history. Since 1978, broadcasters have joined the Hall of Fame’s roll call.
Whereas Jack Buck stood before microphones in Cooper Park to accept his Frick Award, this coming summer, Joe Buck will be giving thanks to those who paved his way to Cooperstown indoors. With all eyes fixed on the younger Buck, the trip has all the makings of being emotional for the man who makes his living in a very public medium.
Ford C. Frick was a former sportswriter, National League president, and MLB commissioner. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970 by the Veterans Committee.
