Buck on World Series criticism: "People think I'm biased no matter who's in the World Series"

HEY KEITH GROLLER

Recently got off a media teleconference call previewing Fox's World Series coverage and naturally, the first question was about potential bias for the Fox broadcast team of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. This happens every year with Buck and McCarver, but this year the bias conspirators will be out in full force.

Buck, of course, is the son of longtime Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck and McCarver won two World Series rings in 1964 and 1967 while a member of the Cardinals.

So, you can bet Fox viewers will be looking for the slightest hint of favoritism from either toward St. Louis.

"I'm accused of being biased no matter who's playing in the World Series," Buck said. "Over the years I've been accused of rooting for Anaheim, Philadelphia, Boston, New York. And I've always been accused of rooting against Anaheim, Philadelphia, Boston and New York. That's the way it goes."

McCarver said he has also received criticism every year from one city or both.

"There's nothing in the world you can about do it, so you can't even think about it," McCarver said. "Joe and I are teethered at the hip when it comes to this. We can't win."

McCarver played for the Cardinals and the Phillies in his playing career, but never worked in St. Louis. He has worked as a broadcaster for the Phillies, Mets and Yankees. He was accused of being anti-Mets in the postseason even when he was on their broadcast team during the regular season.

Buck said he hasn't done the Cardinals on a regular basis for "at least 10 years."

Buck said he will call every Cardinals home run with a certain level of excitment and he'll call "Nelson Cruz's 11th home run of the World Series with the same excitement. That's how I approach it."

He said of St. Louis: "It just happens to be the place where I still hang my hat at the end of the day."

And he said that when he worked the Cardinals-Tigers World Series in 2006 he received a lot of complaints from St. Louis people who accused him of being anti-Cardinal. Troy Aikman, he said, gets the same criticism when he's working Dallas games.

My take is that whether Buck is still a Cardinal fan or not, and look -- his father was an icon in that city and it's only natural that he has soft spot for the city, ballclub and the fans -- he will go overboard to avoid any perception of favoritism toward St. Louis. That means he be will extra eager to show how impartial he is by showing extra enthusiasm for anything that goes well for the Rangers, thereby annoying Cardinals fans.

McCarver, who had a recent angioplasty that caused him to miss the first two games of the ALCS on Fox, said he's completely healthy again. Buck also said he is completely over the vocal chord issue that plagued him back in the spring.

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Ed Goren, Fox's Sports Media vice chairman, said, as he has said often in the past that what the TV execs want more than anything is a long series.

He also said that the perception that nobody cares about the World Series anymore is false.

"In 1971 when the Pirates and Orioles played in the World Series, the World Series ranked No. 8 as the most watched event of that year," Goren said. "Last year, the World Series also was the No. 8 rated show of the year and won prime time for that week. A lot of factors goin into ratings and the more games the better off you are. We have not had a World Series Game 7 since 2002."

"But the World Series has a substantial audience year after year and even with 500 channels out there, it still has the same percentage of the audience it had 40 years ago."

Goren also said that the advertisers old out the postseason baseball spots on Fox earlier than ever.

"It's clear that there's still a great amount of enthusiasm for postseason baseball both with the viewers and on Madison Ave.," Goren said.

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Eric Karros, who will be part of Fox's pregame and postgame analysis, said that he thought the Brewers didn't pitch the Cardinals inside enough during the NLCS.

"If the hitters have zero fear, they're going to have a chance of being successful," Karros said. "If I'm missing with my pitches in this series, I'm missing inside and toward the batters, and not toward the middle of the plate.":

Karros and A.J. Pierzynski both said that the two most recognizable players in this series are Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton, but Pierzynski added that there are a lot of great guys on both teams, and they hoped to let people know more about the other guys as the series unfolds.

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