Joe Buck returning to baseball broadcast booth to call Cardinals vs. Cubs game with Chip Caray

Joe Buck will be calling a baseball game for the first time in three years when the St. Louis Cardinals host the Chicago Cubs on May 24.

There's a special reason behind Buck's return to a baseball broadcast booth: He will be working alongside current Cardinals play-by-play man Chip Caray. Buck's father, Jack, and Caray's grandfather, Harry — legendary announcers in their own right — called Cardinals games on KMOX Radio from 1954-59 and 1961-69 while the franchise won three World Series.

There will be no former player serving as analyst in the booth. It will be just Buck and Caray.

“My idea of doing this is that I’m more like the guest,” Buck told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I’m just sitting in with the band for the night.”

The pairing will only be for one game and will mark Buck's first time calling baseball since Game 6 of the 2021 World Series that saw the Atlanta Braves top the Houston Astros. 

That following spring, Buck and NFL broadcast partner Troy Aikman signed with ESPN to work Monday Night Football. 

Buck had been Fox's No. 1 baseball announcer for 26 years, calling 24 World Series.

Buck began broadcasting games with the Cardinals in 1991, but as his national presence increased with MLB and NFL duties, his workload calling Cardinals games decreased. He announced before the 2008 season he would no longer work local broadcasts.

ESPN offered Buck the chance to serve as a fill-in announcer for baseball games, but he declined.

"I feel like I've done all I could do there," Buck told the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast in 2022. "If someday I wanna go back and call a few games — maybe. But I don't have that itch."

It will be hard for Cardinals fans to not get sentimental about the family lineage of the two announcers that night, but Buck and Chip Caray say the action on the field will be the focus.

“The game comes first,” Caray said. “This will not be about Chip or Joe. But I’m sure we’ll be talking about his father and my grandfather.”