The Chicago Cubs-St. The Louis Cardinals game was rained out on Friday and you won’t see Joe Buck tomorrow night.
ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” return to baseball was washed out by rain Friday, with the Cardinals’ home game postponed due to bad weather. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on July 13 in St. Louis.
The broadcast on Bally Sports Midwest was announced as Buck joining forces with Chip Caray to repeat Cubs-Cardinals history. Buck is the son of Jack Buck, the longtime radio voice of the Cardinals, while Caray is the grandson of beloved Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray.
Buck jokingly feigned tears after the game was canceled before suggesting they could try the format again (he still has a few months before football season) and claiming he had an inkling this would happen:
“I really wanted to play a game tonight, but maybe we’ll do another game another time. I remember, I swear to you, when I was talking to [Bally Sports executive producer] Larry Mago and we were putting this all together, I hung up the phone and thought, ‘You know, the only thing that could happen that night is rain.’ And all that happened tonight is rain.”
Caray didn’t have the bright side: Buck didn’t have to worry about his six-year-old twin boys coming into bed. Buck agreed, saying of his wife Michelle, “Hopefully she put them to bed.”
Instead, the evening turned into an exercise in reminiscing about baseball’s past and broadcasting, though fans would likely understand that regardless of whether the game was played or not.
Buck was nihilistic about the situation, but made it clear that he was happy to be in a baseball stadium:
“It’s good to be back. Maybe we’ll do a game, maybe we won’t. I do know this, I’ve loved every minute of this rain delay, sitting here and catching up on all the new things that have happened in the game of baseball in the two years I’ve been gone. And now I’m really ready to play the game and there’s no game.
It’s been two years since Buck left Fox Sports for ESPN after the latter poached his football partner Troy Aikman. The move meant Buck had to walk away from his gig as Fox’s main baseball play-by-play announcer opposite John Smoltz. He hasn’t called a baseball game since. Fox replaced Buck with Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Joe Davis, who has been an upgrade for many fans thus far.
We’ll see if Buck decides to return to the booth, but so far Mother Nature has been his biggest opponent.
