Jack Buck passed away on this date 19 years ago. He was 77 years old at the time and had been struggling with lung cancer and Parkinson’s. It feels wrong to start off an article that way because Jack Buck’s life was extraordinary. His passing was a mere footnote, the completion of a journey that brought joy to so many. Admittedly, it saddens me that there are college age St. Louis Cardinals fans- and just baseball fans in general- who never had the privilege of enjoying a baseball game called by Buck. But it also makes me infinitely happy that generations of baseball fans did get a chance to hear Buck imploring them to go crazy, or expounding on how he couldn’t believe what he just saw, or just playing the straight man to Mike Shannon, Harry Caray, and others.
The Cardinals, Baseball, and the Ties That Bind
