Joe Buck: ‘The Giants Win The Pennant’

The Giants defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 6-4 on Thursday night thanks to a walk-off three run home run by Travis Ishikawa. The unconventional wild card team from San Francisco is now on to their third World Series in five years, and broke the hearts of the Cardinals, and their number one fan, Joe Buck, who was announcing the game, in very dramatic fashion.

Joe Buck is FOX’s number one broadcaster and the son of Jack Buck, the hall of fame broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals. Joe was raised in St. Louis, attended St. Louis Country Day School, and was the play-by-play announcer for the Cardinals after replacing his father for many years until he moved on to national TV with FOX. Buck has been under tremendous scrutiny and controversy in the past for his coverage of St. Louis Cardinals games. Fans believe Buck favors his hometown team and is unprofessional when he calls their games, therefore making the NLCS series with the San Francisco Giants that he was calling all the more interesting.

Despite questionable moments throughout the series, Buck stayed professional for the most part, especially on Ishikawa’s NL pennant winning walk-off home run on Thursday night. You know as the ball sailed over the right field wall, Buck’s heart was breaking inside. However, he managed to exuberantly call out, "The Giants win the Pennant!” while allowing the remainder of the call to be left to the screaming fans of San Francisco.

Surprisingly, the Giants didn’t have a single home run during the first four games of the series, three of those games in which they won. However, the home run accounted for all six of their runs on Thursday night and it was enough to win.

The World Series begins on Tuesday in Kansas City as the Royals host the Giants in what most certainly showcases the two hottest teams in the game right now. Coincidentally, both teams are Wild Card teams and needed to win a one-game winner-takes-all match just to be in the position to remain in the playoffs. This World Series marks the first time two Wild Card teams will meet since 2002 when the Giants lost to the Angels.