John Smoltz to call World Series games with Joe Buck at Fox
By John Buhler
John Smoltz will join Fox’s Joe Buck in the booth as the broadcasting tandem for the World Series starting in 2016. Smoltz had worked for MLB Network.
Fox has decided to go in a different direction with their play-by-play group with covering the World Series. According to Andy Martino of the New York Daily News, John Smoltz will replace the color commentary tandem of Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci as Joe Buck’s broadcasting partner for Fox as the network’s lead analyst.
Fox struggled with finding an appropriate replacement for Ford Frick winner Tim McCarver after his retirement from the booth in 2013. The network decided to experiment with a three-man booth with Buck, Reynolds, and Verducci and had mixed reviews over the last two seasons.
Since John Smoltz has experience in both the postseason with the Team of the 90s Atlanta Braves and network experience covering Major League Baseball for the MLB Network the last few years, this is a big day in Braves Country as one of our gets to become the lead analyst on the network that covers the World Series.
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McCarver built his career as a player and later broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals. Buck, who also does NFL games with booth partner Troy Aikman, is the son of Ford Frick winner Jack Buck of Cardinals’ lore.
Since retiring from baseball in 2009, the first-ballot Hall of Fame pitcher has done work with both the Atlanta Braves as well as national television work with TBS and the MLB Network. He’ll certainly tell corny jokes in the broadcast booth, but I think he’s a good fit for what Fox wants to go with. They’ll be getting one of the greatest postseason pitchers of all-time and a broadcaster that is both knowledgable and a little quirky.
It’s not easy replacing a guy like Tim McCarver in the booth, but after a failed experiment in the booth with Reynolds and Verducci (good at what they do by the way), it seems like Fox has found their guy in John Smoltz.
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With Smoltz’s Atlanta Braves in the midst of a rapid rebuilding project, might he and Joe Buck end up calling World Series games from the SunTrust Park in a few Octobers from now? That means this rebuild has to work, but at least many in Braves Country will feel a part of World Series coverage with Smoltz in the booth, even if Atlanta still a few years away from contention. Congratulations, Smoltzie! Go Braves!