The 2022 World Series Misses Joe Buck

Broadcasters on the Move

For baseball fans, the Fox MLB Postseason theme song and Joe Buck"s voice have become synonymous with meaningful, October, baseball. While the jingle is sometimes played for the handful of Fox regular season games, the sound has conditioned baseball fans to think Postseason baseball. Outside of 1997 and 1999, Fox has hosted every single World Series since the 1996 matchup between the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees.

Until the 2022 World Series, Joe Buck has been Fox"s primary announcer. This year, the winds of change blew through the broadcast booths across the sporting world as a chain reaction of movement saw broadcasts suddenly become hot commodities. Al Michaels was hired away from NBC to call Amazon Prime"s Thursday Night Football where he is joined by Kirk Herbstreit.

Meanwhile, ESPN, whose sluggish Monday Night Football broadcast crews had been well documented, made two flashy hirings, poaching both Joe Buck and his broadcasting partner Troy Aikman. Suddenly, ESPN had one of the more powerful broadcasting partnerships.

The Impact on the 2022 World Series and Beyond

While hiring Joe Buck was a coup for ESPN, it did leave one major hole. Now that he is no longer employed by Fox, Joe Buck"s voice would be missing from the 2022 World Series, giving a new announcer the opportunity to call baseball"s biggest event, starting with Joe Davis.

While Davis has done a fine job with calling the game, some fans have taken to social media to lament on missing Joe Buck.

Meanwhile, other fans did notice a seemingly funny situation during Game 3 of the 2022 World Series. As the Fox cameras panned around the celebrities in the crowd, Davis was quick to fire off the names of those shown, outside of It"s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star and creator, and rabid Phillies fan, Rob McElhenney.

The Love Him or Hate Him Joe Buck

While Joe Buck had become the voice of World Series baseball, he wasn"t the first choice for plenty of fans. For years, some fans have claimed of perceived favoritism to certain teams while others pointed out the seemingly lack of passion with some of his calls.

A 2016 poll and followup article from Awful Announcing perhaps best showed how fans truly feel about Joe.

Based on their findings, Joe Buck was seen largely as being “just fine" while an almost equal amount of fans loved and hated him. But when comparing him to other announcers, especially during national events, these ratings are probably pretty preferable for a broadcaster.

Sure, some passionate fans will always find perceived slights to their favorite clubs, and maybe Joe Buck could show a little more passion, but calling a fair and neutral game should be the objective of every broadcaster.

And while it certainly feels a little weird hearing a new voice calling baseball games on the biggest stage, maybe someday soon Joe Davis" voice will become the next voice of World Series baseball.

Let us know your thoughts on Joe Buck and the announcing at the 2022 World Series in the comments below!

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