Joe Buck Joins Late Father As Winner of Revered Baseball Broadcasting Award

Joe Buck, a child of St. Louis, is heading to Cooperstown, N.Y.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced Wednesday that Buck, 56, is the 2026 winner of the Ford C. Frick Award. Given annually, the award recognizes excellence in baseball broadcasting.

That defines Buck, who joined his father, Jack Buck, in the broadcast booth of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1991 and remained on the team’s call after his father’s retirement and subsequent death. His father, who called play-by-play in St. Louis for nearly 50 years, won the Frick award in 1987.

They are the only father/son pair to be so honored. According to the Hall of Fame, the younger Buck gained the most points ever in balloting done by the 16-member selection committee.

Buck brings the credentials to the award, certainly.

He learned from his father, sitting with him in the broadcast booth and watching him, recording his own calls of the game in an empty room as his dad worked.

Only Vin Scully, at age 54 in 1982, was younger than Joe Buck when he won the Frick award.

Other finalists on the ballot were both national and local broadcasters: Brian Anderson, Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Duane Kuiper, John Rooney, Dan Shulman and John Sterling.

“Joe Buck authored his own historic legacy while following in the footsteps of his father on a path to Cooperstown,” said Josh Rawitch, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. “During an era of unprecedented audience growth throughout the game, Joe was the voice of the World Series and the All-Star Game, calling the biggest moments in baseball for more than a quarter of a century. He was a Saturday staple in homes across America while still serving as the voice of his hometown St. Louis Cardinals.”

Buck got his start on the call of Triple-A Louisville Redbirds games in 1989. Two years later, he was in the big leagues, then rose rapidly on the national circuit. By 1994, he was on the call of football games for Fox Sports.

In 1996, he was at the mic for his first World Series at age 27, and before leaving Fox in 2021 for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” he called 26 League Championship Series, 24 World Series and 21 All-Star Games as well as the Saturday game of the week.

He has been honored with eight Sports Emmy Awards for play-by-play and In December 2022, Buck was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

He said he knows how fortunate he was to have a father to both guide him and open doors for him.

“I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I was lucky to call Jack Buck my dad and my best friend. I’m lucky that I’m Carol Buck’s son, and it’s hard for me — that’s why I have a therapist — to accept this kind of stuff, because I tend to downplay awards and what have you,” he told MLB.com on Wednesday. “Because I’m always feeling like, you know, I had a leg up at the start of my career, and I did. I’m the first to admit it.

“But I am happy that when I was a kid, I paid attention. And I wanted to be with him; he and I were best friends. And I think the greatest gift my dad gave me was allowing me to be in the room with him. And I think that more than anything started me on this journey that I don’t want to say ends for me in Cooperstown. I’d like to think there’s still some stuff out in front of me, but this is the greatest honor I could receive. And to know what he would be thinking and feeling on this day — that’s the part that makes it special.”

Buck is known for his work on football telecasts as much as he is for baseball. He and football analyst Troy Aikman are the longest-standing broadcasting tandem in NFL history.

Buck is the sixth broadcaster to win both the Frick Award and the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. He joins his father, Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy, Al Michaels and Lindsey Nelson for that honor.

He will receive the Frick award in Cooperstown in late July.

“I’m blown away,” he told MLB.com. “I did not expect this at all. It does feel like it dropped out of the sky. I kind of resigned myself to the fact that it was going to be years, if it ever did come to pass. And to get it here in 2025 for 2026 is just stunning, shocking, and wonderful, all at the same time. So I’m blown away, and I can’t be more appreciative of getting this award.”

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Joe Buck Joins Late Father As Winner of Revered Baseball Broadcasting Award

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