Courtesy St. Louis Post Dispatch

(June 12, 2009) Sportscasting has been almost second nature to Joe Buck his entire life. He grew up around athletes and broadcasters while tagging along with his dad, Jack Buck, and gained his first play-by-play job at age 19. He was in the Cardinals' booth before he turned 21 and now, at 40, is the longtime voice of the NFL and baseball on the Fox network.

But he's branching out. "Joe Buck Live" debuts on HBO at 8 p.m. Monday. The quarterly sports-oriented show, which will air four times a year, mixes comedy, interviews and skits in a free-form format that will rely heavily on his dry, often self-deprecating, wit. And he's eager to get rolling.

"It's been on my mind for most of my waking hours for the last month, now it's ratcheting up with it being just a few days away,'' he said this week. "I'm kind of a control freak, so I want to make sure (everything) I can help control is right. So far, so good."

Ross Greenburg, who runs HBO Sports, is confident Buck will excel.

"We've developed a show that's in sync with his unique personality, his sense of humor,'' he said. "We're on our way. He's excited. I think he's ready to showcase a side of him the American public has not quite seen yet."

Buck will remain in his roles at Fox, but has wanted to branch out from the broadcast booth for several years. He has dabbled in a few avenues of entertainment — most notably commercials and appearances on Conan O'Brien's old late-night program and filling in a couple times for Craig Ferguson. And he and a colleague produced a pilot of a comedy/talk show they peddled to several TV executives. But he thinks he has found the right fit with HBO, although he knows the structure of this program isn't the traditional next step for a play-by-play sportscaster.

"Any time you do something that's a departure, it's a test and I like that,'' he said. "Everybody's trying to show they can do things that maybe people don't know they can. This definitely is in that category.''

Greenburg said it's a test well worth taking for Buck.

"You can live your whole life as a person who does play-by-play and you can be the best in the business whether you're Bob Costas or Joe Buck, but until you can release that personality in a setting like this, you're just going to be the best play-by-play guy," he said. "I think Joe has a lot more to offer, so we're excited to give him this platform.''

"A lot of people around St. Louis have run into me and know what I'm about, but I don't know that across the country people know me as much more than just a play-by-play guy," he said. "So along those lines I have a lot to show and a lot to prove."

FOR OPENERS

The initial episode looks at how athletes' personal lives have come under public scrutiny, with big stars now drawing the paparazzi and tabloid treatment formerly reserved for Hollywood types. The guest list hasn't been announced but the show will be done live, not taped a few hours earlier as are late-night network talk shows.

"That's good for me,'' Buck said. "It makes everything more intense and you get things you normally wouldn't get with a safety net. It's kind of a high-wire act and I'm not planning on falling off.''

Other than a few taped segments to set up what Buck and others will be discussing in front of a studio audience of about 500, the show will be done on the fly.

"None of us know how this show will be, what the tone will be,'' Buck said. "I have no idea what's going to come out of my mouth. I'm just as anxious as anybody else to see and hear it.''

ST. LOUIS CONNECTION

Buck takes the HBO slot that was occupied by another guy with deep St. Louis roots, Costas, who left the network several months ago to take a job with the new Baseball Network to supplement his work for NBC.

Costas has a quick wit, too. But his shows had a more serious tone from start to finish than what Buck's offerings figure to contain.

"The goal wasn't to make this different than Costas,'' Greenburg said. "It was to mold a show that fit Joe Buck's personality much the same way we were challenged to mold a show to fit Bob's personality.''

Buck has plenty of experience taking over for big names. He filled in seven years ago when his dying father couldn't continue in the Cards' radio booth. The same year he replaced Pat Summerall as Fox's top NFL play-by-play man.

"This is right there with (those moves), because Bob is the best at what he does,'' Buck said. "But we are different guys, and have different sensibilities and probably wouldn't do the same thing with the same guest.''

Buck said he has spoken briefly to Costas about the job.

"He's a lot like my dad was when I was starting out with the Cardinals," Buck said. "I don't think he wants to tell me, 'You should do this; you shouldn't do this.' I think he just wants me to do my own thing. And Bob may even pop up in this first show.''

THE BOTTOM LINE

The program has hired comedy writers and plans to have a bit produced by Will Ferrell's Funny or Die website in Monday's episode. But Buck said the humorous aspects aren't what will make or break the show.

"At the end of the day I'm going to be judged on how good the interviews are,'' he said. "(People will say,) 'Did we learn anything from this guest and was it worthwhile to watch?' All the other stuff is fluff. I'm not going to try to force it. I just have to be myself, and what I'm holding myself to is that I conduct really good interviews that are fun, enlightening and journalistically sound."

He raised some eyebrows a few years ago when he was doing play-by-play of Cards games on Fox Sports Midwest and said he didn't consider himself a journalist. But he said comparing that job to the one he has at HBO is an apples-to-oranges situation.

"You're not revealing or digging for stories as the team's play-by-play announcer,'' he said. "But this is a completely different role. That's what excites me, to show that I can ask a tough question or go into an area that maybe an interview guest hasn't been in before or get them to reveal something. That's my goal.''