Then, he tagged around after his famous broadcaster father, the late Jack Buck. Now, Fox's lead MLB announcer goes on the field before any game he calls for research purposes. "And there are BP rules, like guys who are working you leave alone. ... I knew that as a kid, or my father wouldn't have taken me down there."

Which is why Buck says nobody should believe Internet speculation he's seen that he was having "banter and chitchat" with Alex Rodriguez just before the New York Yankees star was dinged by a hard batting practice grounder — resulting in an ankle injury that kept him out of Fox's Boston Red Sox at Yankees game Saturday that Buck called.

Rodriguez was practicing fielding near third base as Buck passed by on his way to the Red Sox's dugout about two hours before game time. Buck says Rodriguez "looks out of the corner of his eye, says 'Hey, Joe.' I kept walking, put my arm up to acknowledge it, but kept walking. Didn't even say hi. ... For him it was a 'hey,' a turn of the head, literally half a second. And I didn't initiate it."

That's about when Lance Berkman's BP shot — "He couldn't have hit it any harder," Buck says — felled Rodriguez.

Berkman went hitless Saturday in the Yankees' 5-2 win. X-rays showed Rodriguez had no broken bones, and he returned to play Sunday.

Rodriguez said he wasn't distracted by Buck and only said hello for a second. Fox had footage of the incident and included it on its game coverage; Buck disclosed his role. Says Buck: "It was literally the most freak thing you could put together. Like getting hit by a pebble thrown off a skyscraper."

Still, if you happen to see Buck while you're, say, in traffic or next to a shark tank, you probably shouldn't nod, wave or look at him too long.