Media Views: Joe Buck says no to calling Cardinals games on BSM; Bob Costas not interested

Telecaster Bally Sports Midwest and the team are seeking a successor to Dan McLaughlin, who departed last week after 24 seasons in the booth and 25 overall on the television broadcast crew. It was what was termed a “mutual decision” following his third arrest on a drunken driving charge in a little more than 12 years. The latest, with a felony charge for being a “persistent” offender, occurred Dec. 4 in Creve Coeur.

When his replacement is signed it will mark the first major hiring in one of the team’s broadcast booths since John Rooney was brought in to replace Wayne Hagin on radio for the 2006 season. Of course Mike Shannon retired following the 2021 campaign, after 50 years, but he drastically had reduced his schedule over the previous decade or so and Rooney already was calling the bulk of the games. Rooney was elevated to the No. 1 slot this year and Ricky Horton joined the radio crew full time after shuffling between that booth and the TV side. No one from the outside was added.

Now the search is on for what Joe Buck — who was in the Cardinals’ TV and radio booths a couple decades ago — says is the “No. 1 job” in the country for a television broadcaster calling a specific team. But Buck won’t be returning to his family roots with the Cards — his dad, legendary announcer Jack Buck, called Redbirds games for 47 years.

He said that while he already has been approached about doing some Cards BSM games, he “politely declined” the overture.

“It’s not the right time in my life,” Buck said this week. “I don’t think it’s fair to do just a few games, you have to be committed to this.”

Buck got his big-league start with the hometown Cardinals and soon after was calling games for Fox and quickly made it big nationally, eventually giving up the local broadcasts in favor of his grueling schedule in which he became the network’s lead MLB and NFL announcer and has called many Super Bowls and World Series.

Buck has cut back considerably this year, moving to ESPN to do “Monday Night Football” and a handful of other projects. He has just four NFL games left this season, counting the playoffs.

After having a hectic schedule for more than three decades, he now is able to spend more family time with his wife, fellow ESPN sportscaster Michelle Beisner-Buck, and his children — including two who still are at home, 4-year-old twin boys. Buck, 53, is enjoying the more leisurely pace.

“I made a decision I was ready to scale back,” he said of his move last spring from Fox Sports. “It has worked out.”

Another prominent sportscaster with deep St. Louis ties, Bob Costas, is in the announcer’s portion of baseball’s Hall of Fame for his excellence at the national level. But he never has broadcast an individual team on a regular basis, having said before that he’d love to do that for a year. But he will not be pursuing the Cardinals job.

“If there ever was a local team whose games I would have done, it’s the Cardinals,” Costas, 70, said this week. “But that time long since has passed. It’s not going to happen.”

He arguably is the best sportscaster ever, maybe the best overall broadcaster in the history of the business. He got his start in St. Louis in 1974, lived in the area until 2011 and still enjoys returning from time he splits between homes in New York and California.

Costas is satisfied with all his many major accomplishments even though they do not include broadcasting a team.

“Most of the things I’d like to have done I have,” he said. “I’ve checked those boxes.”

One thing he has enjoyed doing is hosting “Back on the Record With Bob Costas,” a quarterly talk show on HBO that has covered topical issues, mostly sports. But HBO owner Warner Bros. Discovery is in the cost-cutting mode, as evidenced by many recent layoffs at CNN, and it was announced Thursday that Costas’ show will not return. It is an amicable move for both sides.

Costas nonetheless will stay busy next year, remaining a CNN contributor and again calling a limited amount of games nationally on MLB Network and TBS, which suits him fine. And he has some thoughts on who the ideal Cardinals announcing candidate would be.

“Whoever they hire should be a very good baseball broadcaster who can give them 20, 30 years,” Costas said.

The club has a long history of play-by-play announcers who stayed for multiple decades — in reverse order: McLaughlin, Shannon, Jack Buck, Harry Caray and France Laux.

The successful applicant will have a primo position, Joe Buck said.

“To live in this city, to do the Cardinals — who usually have the top-rated (local telecasts) in the country — people can’t get enough of them,” Buck said. “There is total interest from the fan base, the team is always competitive. That’s everything you want as a broadcaster.”

A nationwide search has begun.

“We’re in the early stages,” Jack Donovan, Bally Sports Midwest general manager and senior vice president, said. “This role is important to Cardinals fans, so we’ll be open-minded and thorough with the goal of having a play-by-play announcer in place before spring training. We’re working closely with the Cardinals to identify great candidates and find the best fit.”

It is believed that a long-term replacement for McLaughlin is being sought, not a fill-in for the upcoming season to buy time to find a “permanent” successor. But that does not seem to preclude bringing in someone for a year or two if an “ideal” candidate is not found in time — or if a person BSM and the Cards really want is not be immediately available because of being under contract elsewhere.

Let’s take a look at some names, familiar and not so well known, who could be under consideration or at least interested in the job — or who have said they will not be in the running. These lists are in alphabetical order.

Already broadcasting Cards

Mike Claiborne: He has been a stalwart in St. Louis sports broadcasting for four decades, including his current long run on the Cardinals Radio Network for which he does fill-in play-by-play on occasion and is a masterful host of ancillary shows. But the TV work for Claiborne is limited.

Ricky Horton: He has done a considerable amount of Cards radio and television play-by-play, and filled in in 2010 when McLaughlin had his first arrest. He emphatically said “no” when asked if he was interested in the TV job now.

“If they came to me and wanted me to fill in, I would,” he said, but nothing beyond that. “I’m not 45 anymore. I like what I’m doing.”{indextab}

John Rooney: He has been a sparkling baseball broadcasting résumé, as well as with other sports, and has been a mainstay in the Cards’ radio booth since 2006 then took the lead role after Shannon retired. But he said he is not pursuing the TV job.

“I like radio,” he said. “Ricky and I have developed a good thing.”

Past Cards announcers

Bob Carpenter: The native St. Louisan has a potent baseball broadcasting legacy, including calling Cards games on radio and TV for about a decade in multiple stints that ended in 2001 when he lost his most prominent role to McLaughlin. Carpenter has been the Washington Nationals’ TV play-by-play broadcaster since 2006, and also has had stints calling games with the Texas Rangers, New York Mets and Minnesota Twins, as well as broadcasting multiple sports for ESPN. He is under contract to do the Nationals for next season.

Wayne Hagin: He was hired to succeed Jack Buck after he died, joining the Cards’ radio booth in 2003. But when the team moved those broadcasts from KMOX (1120 AM) to KTRS (550 AM) beginning in the 2006 season, Hagin was ousted in favor of Rooney — a personal favorite of then-KTRS president Tim Dorsey. Hagin did end up with a brief run calling Cardinals games on TV before a stint with the New York Mets that ended in 2011.

Bob Ramsey: His play-by-play résumé is impressive, headlined by being in his 37th season as the radio voice of St. Louis University’s men’s basketball team. He is a baseball aficionado who did a couple years of TV play-by-play for Cards road games televised by what now is BSM — before the station bumped him in 1999 to make room for McLaughlin when he was getting his start.

Steve Schlanger: The native St. Louisan was on the rise in the 1990s when he was involved in Rams broadcasts and called some Cardinals games during the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home-run record chase. But his career blossomed nationally, not locally.

"I have a full slate between NBC and ESPN and don't have the time or the interest to commit to a full baseball schedule," he said. "I'm not that interested in baseball to begin with and calling 150 games is just way too much. Doing my current events like the Olympics, PGA Championship, Tour de France, U.S. Open, etc. is much more appealing to me."

Other names

Tom Ackerman: The longtime KMOX sports director and morning news/talk show host branches out to do play-by-play on occasion, especially college basketball, and has a mild, low-key approach.

Greg Amsinger: The affable MLB Network host is a graduate of St. Charles High and Lindenwood University and does not hide his affinity for the Cardinals on the air and worked on the team's radio network early in his career. But that career has been cemented on studio work, not play-by-play, as he has been with MLB Network since its debut in early 2009.

Aaron Goldsmith: The highly regarded former St. Louisan (high school at Principia, in St. Louis County, college at Principia, in Elsah, Illinois) was broadcasting the Gateway Grizzlies independent baseball team in Sauget 15 years ago while he worked his way up to the majors. He has spent the last 10 seasons as a Seattle Mariners broadcaster who also calls games regionally for Fox and has done some Cardinals contests in that capacity. He’s still relatively young, 39, and is highly regarded by some in the business. A lot of positives here.

Jim Kelch: He has called games in the Cards’ organization before, when the Louisville Redbirds were the top St. Louis farm team, and helped Joe Buck break into professional broadcasting when they shared that booth. Kelch, 64, has a long and diverse sportscasting career that includes doing big-league play-by-play — broadcasting Cincinnati Reds games on radio and TV for eight years ending in 2017.

Nate Lucas: The St. Louisan did several seasons of play-by-play for the Cardinals’ minor-league team in Springfield, Missouri, and seemed on track for a big rise until being derailed in 2020 when he made a crude remark on a talk show about Kamala Harris, who was running her successful campaign to become vice president of the U.S. He did not return to the booth but has resurrected his career at KFNS (590 AM), for which he co-hosts a talk show with Ramsey. Lucas, 32, has said he has learned a lot from the misstep and says he now considers it a nonissue, and has rebounded nicely at KFNS.

Joe Pott: The longtime voice of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville basketball and baseball also had a long stint broadcasting the Gateway Grizzlies. And he has Cards ties, hosting some of the pregame/postgame shows on the team’s radio network.

Matt Schumacker: Another native St. Louisan (St. Louis University High, class of 2010) who has called sports at Washington University and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville lives in Indianapolis and currently calls events for Fox, ESPN and Big Ten network. Schumacker, 31, also had a season of broadcasting minor-league baseball in Louisville and four years overall calling the minors, including one with Johnson City (Tenn.) when it was a Cards affiliate.