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What: “Jack Buck: Forever a Winner”
Authors: Buck family members and friends
Publisher: Sports Publishing, LLC
Price: $24.95
Three days after Jack Buck died on this date a year ago, a memorial service was held before the St. Louis Cardinals played an interleague game against the Angels at Busch Stadium. Buck’s son Joe said, “We are thankful to God for the bat of Musial, for the arm of Gibson, the legs of Brock, for the power of McGwire. We are all here to say thank you to God for Jack Buck.”
That quote leads off this slick 144-page coffee-table book, a collection of tributes to Buck, the longtime Cardinal announcer and nationally known network broadcaster who died at 77. Buck was also a soldier wounded in combat during World War II, a poet, a philanthropist, an emcee, a sports fan, a father of eight, and a friend to many.
The book was spearheaded by Buck’s widow Carole. She also contributed one of the many tributes, as did the two children she had with Buck -- Joe and Julie Buck Brooks. Some of the other tributes are from Buck’s brother Earle, comedian Jonathan Winters, who once worked with Buck at a television station, Hank Stram, Red Schoendienst and Whitey Herzog. The foreword is written by Tony La Russa.
“The phrase ‘random acts of kindness,’ I think, should have been invented for Dad,” his daughter, Christine, said in his eulogy. “He understood something a lot of people never understand -- the more you give, the more you get back. And he gave of himself in countless ways.”
You don’t have to be a Cardinal fan, or even a baseball fan, to appreciate that Jack Buck was quite a man. And this book is a beautiful reminder of that.
-- Larry Stewart