Joe Buck won't be involved with any on-field controversy regarding the Cardinals' Albert Pujols this weekend like he was last Saturday with another mega star, the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez.
Buck, Fox's lead baseball and football play-by-play announcer, broadcast the Yanks-Red Sox game then and was at the center of a mini-firestorm in New York after his presence led to Rodriquez being injured. Buck was on the field during pregame warmups, a customary practice for many members of the media who talk to players and coaches to collect information.
Rodriguez was taking infield practice at third base and, when he saw Buck walking nearby in foul territory, he gave him a brief greeting. Just as Rodriguez turned toward Buck, he was struck by a line drive hit by teammate Lance Berkman and fell to the ground.
He was unable to play that day, and Buck became the center of attention in the New York media.
"It's no different than things happening in life, it was just a fluke thing," Buck said. "I've been around that (batting practice routine) 5,000 times, trailing around after my dad,'' former Cardinals announcer Jack Buck.
"(Rodriguez) turned his head to say ‘hi' to me and got hit on the shin. It wasn't really any more complicated than that. It was kind of funny the way it did take on a life of its own."
Rodriguez was back in the lineup the next day and was jovial when asked about the incident that Buck said was nearly unavoidable.
"That situation is possible maybe 25 times a night during batting practice," Buck said. "Like all guys do, he was combining fielding practice during batting practice so there's a lot of baseballs flying around. ... I certainly didn't initiate a conversation. I just happened to be walking by and he turned his head and got hit.
"Other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or walking out at that specific second, there's nothing I did that I don't do every time I come to a game, which is walk on the field."
Fox is televising Saturday's Cardinals-Cubs game, its feature contest of the three it is showing regionally.
Although lead analyst Tim McCarver will be on hand, Buck won't - he's in a stretch of filming a promotional announcement for St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, then heads to New York for Fox's preseason NFL meetings, then works on its first exhibition telecast of the summer - New England at Atlanta on Thursday night.
Kenny Albert fills in for Buck on Saturday afternoon as KTVI (Channel 2) relays the coverage.
CARDS RADIO UPDATE
Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III said the club probably is a couple of weeks away from making the decision as to what it will do with its radio rights, that it's waiting to hear from one of the bidders regarding some points of its proposal.
The options are a return to KMOX (1120 AM), a simulcast on current rightsholder KTRS (550 AM) and WXOS (101.1 FM) or leaving them solely on KTRS.
"One of the groups is taking their time a little bit,'' DeWitt said Thursday. "We've been waiting for them to get their business in order. We'd hoped to have it done by now, but there is no real urgency."
Sources said the KTRS/WXOS combo proposal is the one still in the works.
Because the Cardinals now sell the advertising on the broadcasts - unlike their days at KMOX, when the station handled sales - it's not as pressing that a deal be done far in advance of next season. That's because the club can sell advertising ahead of time because it knows the games will be broadcast, just not where. But an individual station, if it was in charge of sales, could not make those plans until it had secured the rights.
DeWitt said the Cardinals' sales staff is "not even stressing about the decision. They're like, ‘OK let us know and we'll sell where that is.''
And DeWitt said he thinks the decision is not far off.
"I don't see it going beyond this month," he said. "There are still a few big issues that both groups are trying to figure out where they stand. I wouldn't say it's just one little tweak here or there. But the issues have been narrowed significantly."
Buck, meanwhile, who has broadcast the Cardinals on KMOX both with and without his dad, isn't taking sides.
"Obviously with my history and my family's history, I always think about the Cardinals being a part of KMOX," he said. "But that's ancient history by this point. It's going to go where the best deal is, and the Cardinals owe it to themselves to make the best deal they can."
SOARING REDBIRDS
Fox Sports Midwest had another milestone rating on Wednesday, when the Cardinals beat the Reds in a battle for first place.
The telecast was seen in 8.4 percent of area homes with a TV, according to The Nielsen Co., making it the highest-rated Cardinals weekday afternoon game (not including home openers and holidays) since the 2006 season opener, in Philadelphia.
The previous night, FSM drew the highest rating in its 14-year history for the Cards-Reds game that featured a brawl.
ROLLIN' TO THE RAMS
ESPN's Chris Mortensen is set to ramble into St. Louis on Saturday, as he nears the end of a mammoth bus trip that began July 29 in Dallas and has taken him from Texas to San Diego, up the West Coast to the Seahawks' camp in Washington, down to Colorado to see the Broncos, into western Missouri for the Chiefs, north to view the Vikings and Packers before descending to St. Louis.
He heads to Indiana on Sunday to cover the Colts then concludes Monday with the Saints in Louisiana. Colleague Adam Schefter has been covering the teams in the East and South as they combine to provide ESPN reports from all 32 camps.
Because the Rams-Vikings exhibition game Saturday in St. Louis has not sold out, it will not be televised live locally. KTVI (Channel 2) will air it on tape at 10:30 that night and at 2 p.m. Sunday. NFL Network is set to show it at midnight Sunday/Monday morning.
