October 17, 2015
Phillies fans, attempting to forget a 99-loss season, may have another vested interest in this year's MLB playoffs other than rooting for the Cubbies.
It's not secret at the South Philly sports complex, or anywhere in the region for that matter, that Philadelphia is no fan of FOX broadcaster Joe Buck.
Well, as it turns out, neither is Kansas City.
Philly's lasting distaste for Buck is well documented. Just to sample the hatred, he was criticized by many fans for his supposed lackluster call when the Phillies won the World Series back in 2008 (MLB's YouTube page posted the late Harry Kalas' call, possibly to avoid the ire of the Phillies' faithful).
Plus, on any given Sunday, you're almost guaranteed to see tweets from Eagles fans that look like this:
the moment the Eagles game is a joe buck-less commentated game pic.twitter.com/Z5kfn2uIkn
— Andrew Bamber (@kungfubamba) October 4, 2015
Idk what's worse listening to the Eagles game on redskins radio or Joe Buck on fox #killme
— Steve DiCarlo (@SteveDiCarlo) October 4, 2015
Having to listen to Joe Buck after an eagles loss is one of the worst things in football
— Logan (@Logan_Sklut) October 4, 2015
Buck is apparently aware of all this. He actually quit Twitter for a period of time because of the nasty comments he was getting from several fan bases, citing Philly as one of the main culprits.
Royals fans, whose team currently holds a 1-0 lead over the Blue Jays in the ALCS in their bid to return to the World Series, have been just as harsh to Buck.
The series is being broadcast on FOX channels with Buck doing the play-by-play, and Kansas City fans have started a Change.org petition to stop him from broadcasting the games.
As of Saturday, it had more than 10,000 signatures. It reads:
Please consider revising your plan to have Joe Buck provide commentary during the ALCS games. We feel that your audience would be far better served by someone less biased, with better knowledge of the game.
The commentary he provided last year left a bad feeling with those forced to listen to it that persists even a year later.
The biggest beef, it seems, is that Buck was overly concerned with the San Francisco Giants in last year's World Series, specifically with pitcher Madison Bumgarner.
To be fair, Bumgarner was historically great in the 2014 series that went to seven games. Also, it's not like Giants fans were any happier with Buck:
Giants fans are united in their opinion of Joe Buck #WorldSeries #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/WHX3h9XbBF
— Dan Adams (@danthecalfan) October 26, 2014
Despite all the hate, it seems like Buck has a good sense of humor about it all. He retweeted a fan who posted the petition, saying he supported it:
Only 26 retweets! Cmon people lets get behind this! Let's get to 30 by day's end. #wecanKC https://t.co/TdV2EapdqE
— Joe Buck (@Buck) October 15, 2015
No matter your opinion of Buck, it's clear he has a pretty thick skin. After all, thousands of baseball fans can't come close to what Artie Lange did to him a few years ago.
