{"id":19757,"date":"2026-03-11T08:12:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/guideposts-classics-joe-buck-on-his-hero-his-father\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:08:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:08:34","slug":"guideposts-classics-joe-buck-on-his-hero-his-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/friends-and-family\/family\/guideposts-classics-joe-buck-on-his-hero-his-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Guideposts Classics: Joe Buck on His Hero, His Father"},"content":{"rendered":"

The night before the doctors removed my father from the ventilator, the last night they said he\u2019d be alive, I sat by Dad\u2019s bedside in the hospital and said all the things I needed to say. I held his hand and told him how much I loved and admired him. I assured him that I would take care of Mom. I thanked him for all he had taught me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s okay,\u201d I said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to worry. You can just let go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dad could only gaze back at me. He couldn\u2019t speak because of the tube in his throat from a tracheotomy. He had Parkinson\u2019s<\/a>, lung cancer and now an infection. He lifted his eyebrows. I love you.<\/em> That was all.<\/p>\n

I squeezed his arm and left the room. I slumped against a wall in the hallway. He\u2019d been in the hospital for months. This was it. The end I\u2019d been dreading. How could I go on without my father?<\/p>\n

Millions of baseball fans knew my father, Jack Buck, as the gravelly radio voice of the St. Louis Cardinals. For 40 years, in that funny, folksy, self-deprecating style of his, he had served as the heartland\u2019s storyteller, until he had become as beloved as the Cards\u2019 most legendary players. At the entrance to Busch Stadium, around the corner from the statue of the great Stan Musial, there is a sculpture of my father holding a microphone. And in Cooperstown, New York, there is a plaque commemorating his election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

But to me he was Dad, my best friend, my hero. I followed him into broadcasting, eventually becoming his partner, calling Cardinals games. Nine years ago I began a second job telecasting the big national sports events, including the World Series. I was on the road a lot those days, but still I called my dad after every game. I wanted his input and advice. I wanted it still, on this unbearable night. After you go, Dad, the city will honor you, <\/em>I thought. But what will I do?<\/em><\/p>\n

I drove home in a daze. The next morning I called the hospital. My mother answered. \u201cHe\u2019s still with us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

I had a Cardinals game to broadcast that evening. From Busch Stadium. First place was at stake. I\u2019d told the radio station I\u2019d be there. But now I was having second thoughts. How could I go, with my dad breathing his last a few miles away? That afternoon I drove to the ballpark to prepare. That meant mixing with the players, coaches and managers to gather personal stories to share with my audience\u2014anecdotes of life on the road, a practical joke pulled in the clubhouse, how a player had emerged from a batting slump. It was a trick Dad taught me.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow\u2019s he doin\u2019?\u201d a coach hitting fungoes asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cHang in there, Joe,\u201d a player said.<\/p>\n

My earliest childhood memory is of being in a broadcast booth with my father. I was three years old. He was on the air, in the middle of describing a play, when I spilled Coca-Cola all over him. My dad shot me a look I will never forget. I burst into tears.<\/p>\n

But not even that could keep me away. I was the only one of Dad\u2019s seven kids who tagged along with him to the radio booth. I was a big baseball fan, and I loved being around the game. Mostly, though, I loved spending time with my father. He was on the road a lot, so any chance to be with him was a treat.<\/p>\n

Dad grew up poor. He hawked newspapers as a seven-year-old. Later my father took on odd jobs\u2014short-order cook, crane operator, deckhand on an iron ore boat\u2014anything to help the family. At night he worked on his voice by reading the sports pages to his father, who suffered from cataracts.<\/p>\n

Thanks to my dad, I never had to struggle like that. But I shared his appreciation for hard work. Dad never pushed me to follow in his footsteps. He didn\u2019t have to. Starting when I was 13, I\u2019d drive with my father to Busch Stadium, and while he was broadcasting the game to millions I\u2019d call the action into my tape recorder in an empty radio booth. We\u2019d listen to the tape on the drive home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you think?\u201d I\u2019d ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cWork on your diction,\u201d he would say. \u201cThe first rule for a play-by-play man is that he be understood. The second is: bring the action to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

My dad gave me plenty of advice\u2014\u201cJust be yourself,\u201d or \u201cRemember, you\u2019re not the star; the game is\u201d\u2014but I never really knew if he thought I was any good. Then for my eighteenth birthday he took me on a road trip to New York for a Cardinals-Mets game. I was sitting in the back of the booth, soaking up the atmosphere, until I heard him say over the air, \u201cNow to take us through the fifth inning is my son, the birthday boy, Joe Buck.\u201d<\/p>\n

I snapped out of my seat, totally unprepared. \u201cPlease, don\u2019t make me do this,\u201d I said to him off-mike. \u201cI\u2019ve barely been following the game.\u201d My dad just smiled, and he and his broadcast partner left the booth.<\/p>\n

I had no choice. I sat in his chair\u2014Dad\u2019s chair\u2014and started talking. I tried to imagine that I was Dad. That I had his authority, his knowledge of the game. Thankfully, nothing major happened. And no fans called to complain. \u201cI had to prove to you that you could do it, son,\u201d Dad told me.<\/p>\n

Three years later I landed the Cardinals job. My father and I were the broadcast team<\/a>. The first game we called together was opening day, 1991\u2014the Cards beat the Cubs, 4\u20131, at Chicago\u2019s Wrigley Field. What I remember most about that day is that in the third inning it dawned on me that my father was my partner and I didn\u2019t know what to call him. Between innings I turned and said to him, \u201cI\u2019m certainly not going to call you Dad on the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dad laughed. \u201cDon\u2019t call me anything. Just start talking. I\u2019m the only other guy here. I\u2019ll know you\u2019re talking to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

We got so comfortable in our eight years on the radio that eventually I did<\/em> start calling him Dad on the air. By then his Parkinson\u2019s made his hands shake. I knew our time together was limited. I figured, Why not let the listeners know how much I love him?<\/em><\/p>\n

Those years together meant everything to me. All that time my father spent away from home when I was little, I got it all back. It was as if God were making it up to the both of us. On the road, we stayed at the same hotel and had lunch together every day. How many guys in their 20s get the opportunity to spend that kind of time with their dads?<\/p>\n

It was near the end that I came to admire my father more than ever. Dad got the most out of every minute he lived. His hope for me was that I\u2019d do the same. One night, after he\u2019d undergone radical surgery, he looked up at me from his hospital bed. \u201cI know you\u2019re thinking of buying a house, and that you\u2019ve been putting it off because you\u2019ve been so concerned about me,\u201d he said. \u201cGo ahead. Don\u2019t put off what\u2019s important. Live your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the moment I had dreaded had finally arrived. The next breath Dad took could be his last, and here I was miles away in the broadcast booth, waiting for the start of another game. I looked over to where he used to sit. The chair was empty.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would you do?\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n

The answer came in an instant. Dad had never missed a game in his life, not until he got really sick and landed in the hospital. He wouldn\u2019t want me to miss this one. I sat down behind the microphone, and the Cardinals took the field.<\/p>\n

I told baseball stories<\/a> between pitches, just as he would have done. I called the plays, hearing his advice: \u201cRemember, you\u2019re not the star; the game is.\u201d Between innings I talked to my mother. Dad was still breathing. Dear Lord,<\/em> I prayed, I\u2019ve got to let him know I\u2019m going to be all right.<\/em> The Cardinals scored six runs in the first three innings and vaulted into first place with a 7\u20132 victory.<\/p>\n

After the final out, I rushed back to the hospital. \u201cHe\u2019s still holding on,\u201d Mom said. Dad was tucked in, now without any tubes or wires attached. I leaned in close and said, \u201cI\u2019ve got you covered. Everything\u2019s going to be fine here.\u201d<\/p>\n

How could I be so sure? Because my father had taught me so well. As much as I was going to miss my dad, I would remember him\u2014honor him\u2014in everything I did. That\u2019s how I would move on past the numbing grief.<\/p>\n

Dad died five minutes later. But a part of him has never gone. I still feel him every time I do a broadcast. I\u2019ll be calling the action, and I\u2019ll look at the chair where he sat and know his spirit is never far away.<\/p>\n

For more inspiring stories, subscribe to <\/em>Guideposts<\/strong><\/a> magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The night before the doctors removed my father from the ventilator, the last night they said he\u2019d be alive, I sat by Dad\u2019s bedside in the hospital and said all the things I needed to say. I held his hand and told him how much I loved and admired him. I assured him that I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[267,222,349],"tags":[83,33,76,213],"ppma_author":[1407],"class_list":["post-19757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-stories","category-family","category-sports","tag-baseball","tag-celebrities","tag-father","tag-son"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGuideposts Classics: Joe Buck on His Hero, His Father - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guideposts Classics: Joe Buck on His Hero, His Father\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The night before the doctors removed my father from the ventilator, the last night they said he\u2019d be alive, I sat by Dad\u2019s bedside in the hospital and said all the things I needed to say. 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