Cardinals Broadcasters

Jack Buck | Harry Caray | Joe Garagiola

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1987 Ford C. Frick Award Winner 
Jack Buck

The 1987 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award was Jack Buck, the "Voice of the Redbirds" since 1954 and longtime sports director for KMOX radio.

A graduate of Ohio State University, Buck got his baptism behind the microphone during his collegiate days by doing OSU basketball and football, after which he became the baseball announcer for Columbus (1950-51) and Rochester (1953), both Cardinal farm clubs. Rochester General Manager Bing Devine was so impressed that he recommended Buck to the big club in 1954 as color man, sharing the booth with Harry Caray, the play-by-play announcer. Upon Caray's departure in 1970, Buck became the principal, and he has filled this role ever since with the exception of a one-year hiatus in 1976 when he hosted NBC's "Grandstand."

The native of Holyoke, Massachusetts, was inducted into the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Radio Hall of Fame in 1995. Buck has also distinguished himself in other sports, including broadcasts of the Super Bowl in 1970 and from 1978 through 1984. He has also received national acclaim for his work on CBS radio and television, and he hosts his own radio show on KMOX.

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Mike Shannon

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1989 Ford C. Frick Award Winner
Harry Caray

For well over half a century, the ebullient, colorful style of 1989 Ford C. Frick Award winner Harry Caray personified Baseball in the Midwest. Before television blanketed the country and before backyards (and front yards) were overrun with satellite dishes, Caray's out-spoken, opinionated, sometimes outrageous and often controversial approach was the public's pipeline from the Great Plains to the astern seaboard.

Caray began his major league career behind the mike with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1944. After 25 years in St. Louis, he migrated to California where he spent the 1970 season broadcasting the games of Charlie Finley's Oakland Athletics. He then moved on to Chicago, where he announced White Sox games for 11 years, after which he went cross-town to Wrigley Field. In his first 41 seasons in the booth, Caray never missed a game, and the fan favorite went on to broadcast over 8,300 games in his 53-year career in the big leagues.

Caray's reputation as a fearless and out-spoken critic frequently led to disenchantment on the part of his various employers. On the other hand, few have been a better salesman for Baseball for so long.

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1991 Ford C. Frick Award Winner
Joe Garagiola

"The 1952 Pirates lost 112 games. One day we had a rainout and we staged a victory party." This is the type of humor that has endeared Joe Garagiola to baseball fans everywhere. In recognition of his "major contributions to Baseball," Garagiola received the 1991 Ford C. Frick Award.

Garagiola's credentials are impressive. A journeyman catcher for nine seasons with the Cardinals, Pirates, Cubs and Giants, his interest in broadcasting piqued in 1950 when he tuned in to his team's radio broadcasts while convalescing from a shoulder separation. Following his retirement as a player after the 1954 season, he was offered a job with the Cardinals' broadcast crew. In the booth, Garagiola possessed a marvelous, easy-to-like approach to the game and a friendly, folksy manner. His progression behind the microphone included the Game of the Week, All-Star Game and World Series with NBC-TX throughout the 1960s, New York Yankee telecasts with Red Barber, Phil Rizzuto, and Jerry Coleman from 1965-66, the NBC Today Show from 1962-73, and California Angels telecasts in 1990. Garagiola currently does TV broadcasts for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

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