Roland Klose

Jack Buck, longtime St. Louis Cardinals announcer for KMOX (1120 AM), died in 2002 at the age of 77, but in a city that looks backwards, he remains a lingering presence, especially on his former station, where his iconic calls during the team’s heyday, are constantly recycled.

In 1984, I was invited to Webster University, where Buck was the guest speaker at a “Politics of Sports” class. Buck spoke candidly about the state of affairs in baseball, touching on racism and drug use. The story, published in the March 1984 edition of the St. Louis Journalism Review, isn’t available online — the publication hasn’t been digitized yet — but Buck’s comments are worth a read.

Here’s the story:

JACK BUCK: OFF-THE-AIR

Jack Buck, KMOX-AM’s veteran sportscaster, says the “most disappointing thing of my life is the lack of accomplishment on the black-white scene.”

Buck, the longtime “Voice of the Baseball Cardinals,” discussed race, drugs, money and common sense in a talk with Webster University students Feb. 22 [1984].

Buck appeared at the invitation of Prof. Ed Fuchs, who teaches a “Politics of Sports Class” at the college.

Buck was asked why there are no black coaches or managers in the National Baseball League or in many other professional sporting organizations. The sportscaster put the blame squarely on racism: “The owners are white and they’ll never hire black coaches. A Jesse Jackson will never own the baseball Cardinals. And he’ll never coach them either,” said Buck. [He was mistaken: Frank Robinson became the first Black player-manager in 1975; Larry Doby was named manager of the White Sox in 1978.]

Some of that race hostility, Buck claimed, spills over into players’ treatment of each other. He noted a number of baseball Cardinals whose relations with each other are less than cordial.

Buck has seen much that has changed in sports, especially in baseball, since he arrived in St. Louis 1954. One of the most significant changes, of course, has been the growth of the communications industry. “When you heard a game on the radio, everything was so far removed — it was a fantasy. Now 7- and 8-year-old kids know everything about the game,” Buck said. It is comparable to the great changes in politics, “every move is scrutinized and publicized,” he said.

“I started in this business for a dollar an hour; five dollars for a baseball show,” Buck said. But low salaries in the old days were matched by low salaries for baseball players. And baseball owners had a lock on the careers of their players with the old reserve clause. “Once a player signed, he belonged to the Cardinals forever.”

When the baseball players finally found the right court and right judge and got the reserve clause thrown out, it changed the game of baseball forever. Now a player like Ozzie Smith can negotiate a million-dollar contract in 15 minutes – and it hardly causes a ripple.”

“There is no doubt the players run the game of baseball,” Buck said. But in gaining the super-competitive salaries, something was lost. Players don’t have nearly as much fun as they used to,” Buck claims.

“Baseball is a business. You’re not going to find a baseball player diving into third row to catch a foul ball and maybe risk his career.” Buck doesn’t think today’s ballplayers are as competitive as in the past.

Buck points to an even more serious problem he believes is caused by the players’ newfound leverage and affluence.

A football coach confided to Buck that he was treating seven players for drug use and knew of several others who were also users. Instead of applying his energies to winning the next game, the coach was trying to get some of his people into the hospital for treatment.

Players can’t take all of the blame for heavy drug use in sports. Buck also blames the sports organizations. Buck noted a lot of trainers pushed Dexedrine and other drugs on their players. Buck would get stuck interviewing someone who had scarfed down three or four of these “little green pills,” drank a beer after the game, and would shake and bop and “look around for another game to pitch.”

“Why didn’t I say something on the air?

“It’s common sense not to say everything I see,” Buck answered himself.

Buck does not credit baseball players with much intelligence. “I suspect anyone in college for a couple of years is smarter than anyone playing baseball,” Buck said. Most come straight from high school, wallow in the minor leagues for a number of years, and if they are lucky, they break into the major leagues. Not all are lucky. Buck spoke poignantly about one young player who spent 14 years in the minor and big leagues and ended up being cut, “winding up a 32-year-old kid.”

“If a kid doesn’t last long enough, he’s wasted a long part of his life,” Buck said.

What about owner-manager friction? Buck said the Cardinals enjoy a special situation:

“If you’re good friends with Gussie, you can say anything to him and do anything to him,” Buck said of Cardinals owner August Busch Jr.

“Whitey Herzog, the Cardinals manager, is a good old boy,” said Buck. “Gussie Busch is a good old boy. They get together at Grants Farm, hoist a few beers, and Whitey tells Gussie he’s senile. It’s that kind of relationship,” Buck said.

“Whitey can do anything he wants; he enjoys the most unique position in sports.” That’s not the same with the football Cardinals, Buck added, where owner Bill Bidwill and coach Jim Hanifan combine to produce an “efficiency of about 50 percent.”

But Buck understands the dynamics. “If a man owns a football team that’s worth $50 million, he wants to run it. A low of owners’ wives think they can also run their husbands’ football teams.”

Gussie Busch’s patient stewardship of the Cardinals is one that may not be passed to the next generation, Buck said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see the brewery sell the Cardinals after Gussie dies. August Busch (III) doesn’t even want to think about paying Ozzie Smith a million dollars — more than he makes as head of the brewery. He thinks it’s dumb.” [Gussie Busch died in 1989; A-B sold the Cardinals in 1995.]

Finally, the good word Buck’s attentive audience waited for: “I kind of think we have a very good chance of winning a pennant this year.” [They didn’t.]