Forbidden Love is a Cubs DNA series where our staff waxes poetic about a player on a team other than the Cubs. Maybe even one you think they should hate. In this installment, Staci picks a doozy and goes way off script with some props for... FOX Sports announcer Joe Buck?!?
Everyone hates Joe Buck. I mean, we all have reason to think he's the biggest hack in sports media, right? There's the blatant favoritism against whoever your favorite team is, like, ALL THE TIME, and it doesn't matter what team it is. He has the uncanny ability to seem like he hates your team specifically. It's pretty amazing!
We all remember how he gushed over Clayton Kershaw and his sweet tank tops during the 2016 NLCS. It was enough to make Cubs fans barf. People got so tired of it that memes like this were all over the interwebs.
Once the World Series hit, Buck shifted his attention to our own comeback kid Kyle Schwarber, and I think even some of us got sick of hearing about Schwarbs and his big return. Someone even made an actual wedding registry for the two of them during the series it got so ridiculous. It was even too much for me!
Plus, his play calls are the absolute worst. So bad, in fact, that people spend precious time cutting together minutes upon minutes of his awful calls!
Except... wait. Those calls were objectively just fine. Sure, Buck isn't given to histrionics like, say, Matty Vasgersian, but do we really need someone hysterically yelling "SANTA MARIA!!!!!!" every time someone hits a walk off? I don't, if we're being honest. Buck also made the most important call in Chicago Cubs history, in case you're one of the people who forgot that.
The fun thing about Joe Buck is that he knows you hate him. He knows you think he's bad, and he knows you think he hates your team. The turning moment for me with Buck was when I first looked at his Twitter profile and saw this:
He's done entire interviews talking about it, in fact... trust me, he knows you think he's a schmuck. If you read that linked interview, though, you'll also find out that Joe Buck is self-deprecating in a way that is far more self aware that I would have expected. That's something I've learned from following him on social media--no one jabs at Joe Buck more than Joe Buck. Want to make fun of his looks? He's got a million jokes about his own receding hairline ready before you even take a breath.
Then a few weeks ago, during this time of crisis, Joe Buck did something so awesome that I don't think I could ever hate him again no matter what. It started with a simple tweet.
And then the follow up... he would do the videos for charity!
Since then, Buck's been posting quarantine calls on Twitter every single day! FOX Sports is helpfully collecting them each day like this on YouTube if you've missed out.
I guess what I'm saying in all of this is that maybe it's time to give Joe Buck a real chance. He just might not be as bad as you think. At least, he could be a lot worse.
