Jack Buck Slept Here
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| Jack Buck |
In the early years come October I'd suffer an ever small case of depression. By the holiday season it disappeared. I blamed it on the change of seasons and the prospect of many gray months ahead. Now in the autumn of my years, I know now it's the end of the baseball season. For whatever tidbit of depression I lived with, come the following season there was a new beginning with the coming of spring training and the prospect of 162 games — a new set of statistics and a new start. "Maybe the home team will win."
The 2011 season was rough. The team up the Pike had imploded in September and my team washed out in the early innings of the playoffs. What to do? While the bouts of micro depression stopped years ago I wasn't looking forward to the long gray months ahead. But wait! The Cardinals were in it, by the hairs on their chin. If only they could get past Milwaukee to face Detroit or Texas, the gray months would be shortened by a week or two.
I've always been a Cardinals fan.
First thing each morning in season, the box scores are analyzed in the Post followed by a re-check in the afternoon Chronicle. First the home team, followed by the team up the Pike and finally the Cardinals. Why the Cardinals? Never really knew until August 1992. A charter member of the Senior League, its hallowed history including the legends of Hornsby, Musial and Brock, McGee, Gibson and Smith. The St. Louis Fanatics, the Arch, the Clydesdale's, Budweiser and Jack Buck.
Finishing a grand tour in the summer of 1992, we (my son Mike and me) were brought up to the loge level of Buch Stadium and ushered into the broadcast booth of KMOX, the Voice of the St. Louis Cardinals. We were introduced to Mike Shannon who was busy getting ready for that night’s game with Montreal. Jack Buck was on his way out to get something to eat. "Come on guys, I'll buy you a hot dog." We followed the Hall of Famer to a cafeteria behind the broadcast booths. Munching on our hot dogs, he asked where we were from. Figuring no one had heard of Willimantic and thinking that someone connected to sports had heard of UConn's basketball program, I said "Storrs, Connecticut." His reply, "Know where Willimantic is?" I said yes and asked why he knew about Willimantic? "Spent the night there once." "Where?" I asked. “The town jail," he replied. "Why?" I asked again. Buck, growing up in Holyoke, Mass. had had a disagreement with his parents and ran away from home. Around 10:00 pm on a Sunday night he pulled into Willimantic, where he was immediately picked up and brought to the police station then located in Town Hall. His parents were contacted but no one was home. They and half of Holyoke were out looking for Jack. It was decided after speaking with the Holyoke PD that the wayward traveler would be the guest of the Willimantic Police that evening. "Slept like a log that night," he said. The next morning he was taken out for breakfast by a police officer. We decided it was probably to Lindy's.
The Cardinals extended my season this year, as they went on to beat Milwaukee and Texas to win the 2011 World Series in seven games. ESPN Radio's Dan Shulman tidily summed it up: "No team's ever has come from as far back as late in the season as the Cardinals did. No team has ever come back twice from being a strike away from elimination in the World Series. ... An epoch series not for the faint of heart."Thursday's sixth game, Joe Buck, Jack’s son and the lead play-by-play broadcaster for Fox TV, finished what he said was the most memorable game he ever has broadcast with a personal tribute to his late dad, who had a similar call two decades earlier in an eerily similar setting. As David Freese cracked his home run in the 11th inning late Thursday to give the Cards their miraculous 10-9 victory over Texas to force Game 7 — after they trailed by two runs in the ninth and 10th innings and twice were down to their last strike — Buck described the winning hit thusly: "Freese hits it into center. WE WILL SEE YOU TOMORROW NIGHT!"
I've always been a Cardinals fan.
First thing each morning in season, the box scores are analyzed in the Post followed by a re-check in the afternoon Chronicle. First the home team, followed by the team up the Pike and finally the Cardinals. Why the Cardinals? Never really knew until August 1992. A charter member of the Senior League, its hallowed history including the legends of Hornsby, Musial and Brock, McGee, Gibson and Smith. The St. Louis Fanatics, the Arch, the Clydesdale's, Budweiser and Jack Buck.
Finishing a grand tour in the summer of 1992, we (my son Mike and me) were brought up to the loge level of Buch Stadium and ushered into the broadcast booth of KMOX, the Voice of the St. Louis Cardinals. We were introduced to Mike Shannon who was busy getting ready for that night’s game with Montreal. Jack Buck was on his way out to get something to eat. "Come on guys, I'll buy you a hot dog." We followed the Hall of Famer to a cafeteria behind the broadcast booths. Munching on our hot dogs, he asked where we were from. Figuring no one had heard of Willimantic and thinking that someone connected to sports had heard of UConn's basketball program, I said "Storrs, Connecticut." His reply, "Know where Willimantic is?" I said yes and asked why he knew about Willimantic? "Spent the night there once." "Where?" I asked. “The town jail," he replied. "Why?" I asked again. Buck, growing up in Holyoke, Mass. had had a disagreement with his parents and ran away from home. Around 10:00 pm on a Sunday night he pulled into Willimantic, where he was immediately picked up and brought to the police station then located in Town Hall. His parents were contacted but no one was home. They and half of Holyoke were out looking for Jack. It was decided after speaking with the Holyoke PD that the wayward traveler would be the guest of the Willimantic Police that evening. "Slept like a log that night," he said. The next morning he was taken out for breakfast by a police officer. We decided it was probably to Lindy's.
The Cardinals extended my season this year, as they went on to beat Milwaukee and Texas to win the 2011 World Series in seven games. ESPN Radio's Dan Shulman tidily summed it up: "No team's ever has come from as far back as late in the season as the Cardinals did. No team has ever come back twice from being a strike away from elimination in the World Series. ... An epoch series not for the faint of heart."Thursday's sixth game, Joe Buck, Jack’s son and the lead play-by-play broadcaster for Fox TV, finished what he said was the most memorable game he ever has broadcast with a personal tribute to his late dad, who had a similar call two decades earlier in an eerily similar setting. As David Freese cracked his home run in the 11th inning late Thursday to give the Cards their miraculous 10-9 victory over Texas to force Game 7 — after they trailed by two runs in the ninth and 10th innings and twice were down to their last strike — Buck described the winning hit thusly: "Freese hits it into center. WE WILL SEE YOU TOMORROW NIGHT!"
Twenty years and one day earlier, his father was on CBS when Kirby Puckett homered, also in the 11th and also in Game 6, to give Minnesota a 4-3 victory over Atlanta. Jack Buck, working his last Series on national TV, described it this way: "Into deep left center ... AND WE'LL SEE YOU TOMORROW NIGHT!"
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The blog looks great, Johnny. Just signed up to follow by email so I can get the latest entry hot off the press. -Ron
ReplyDeleteThanks Ron, tell your friends, I'm not close to a million page views. John
DeleteGreat Jack Buck story. Bob Gibson never had a sore thumb. enjoy pjc
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter, working on a Phlip Alou story and his connections to Willimantic
ReplyDelete