‘Bachelorette’ joke leads Buck to apologize

MIAMI – Along with his distinct voice, commanding on-air presence and alertness to detail, Joe Buck’s quick wit generally has served him well in his career, as he ascended to one of the coveted positions in sports broadcasting – lead NFL and baseball announcer for Fox.

But Buck admits his attempt to be humorous backfired this week, creating a bit of a firestorm that he attempted to extinguish Thursday by apologizing to his Fox bosses and baseball commissioner Bud Selig.

In a Wednesday interview with ESPN’s Colin Cowherd, Buck suggested he doesn’t watch much baseball and prefers “The Bachelorette.” As word of his comments spread through cyberspace, Buck was lambasted by ESPN’s Skip Bayless, a Detroit News columnist and others. But Buck said by phone Thursday that he was joking. The only broader point he meant seriously, Buck said, was baseball must follow through on efforts to speed up the game.

In his chat with Cowherd, Buck said, among other things:

“From baseball’s perspective, you think about what you’re asking people to invest their time when these games take forever,” Buck said. “TV’s a part of it, but certainly the strike zone … and length of games and guys stepping out and guys stepping off the mound.

“By the time you get to the sixth inning, if you’re watching every minute, you put two-plus hours into the thing. It’s just a lot to ask of people in this day and age as far as sitting down and watching a sporting event. That’s just not part of my day or … night. And I’ll be honest with you – watching ‘The Bachelorette’ is.”

Bayless, ESPN’s resident gasbag, said, “If I’m Bud Selig, I don’t want him being my national voice of baseball.”

“Good for him,” Buck said of Bayless’ remark.

But seriously … “It was a total joke. If it didn’t come across as that, you fault the joke teller. Baseball has been my life forever,” Buck said, as he recalled accompanying his father, legendary announcer Jack Buck, to games as a child.

Buck assured that he watches a lot of baseball not only because “it’s my job to stay current,” but also because “I enjoy it.” He said he jokingly mentioned “The Bachelorette” only “because I had watched it with my wife the night before.”

On Thursday, Buck called Selig, baseball executive Tim Brosnan, Fox Sports president Ed Goren and Fox Sports chairman David Hill to apologize.

“I said it was wrong and I’m sorry and it won’t happen again. I learned a valuable lesson. You have to be careful what you say and I was not careful.”

Buck said Selig “joked that he’ll tell my mom to spank me.” But Buck reiterated that “baseball would benefit if it would follow through on rules” designed to speed the game up. “I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t mention television as a part of” why the game moves slowly.

Buck relinquished his St. Louis Cardinals TV package this year and is working 13 of Fox’s 26 regular-season Saturdays (including Yankees-Red Sox this weekend), plus a league championship series and World Series. Buck has explored creating a late-night talk show but recently put that on hold.

Around the dial

Two years after losing his ESPN job under a cloud of rumors, Harold Reynolds returns to network TV on Sunday as an analyst on TBS’ All-Star Game selection show. Reynolds settled a $5 million wrongful termination lawsuit with ESPN in April after the network – in court documents – said five women raised “concerns” about Reynolds’ behavior when he worked there. Reynolds has denied wrongdoing.

“I felt I had to … step up and clear my name and obviously it is working out real well for me,” Reynolds, who also works for mlb.com, said by phone this week.

Reynolds – who will team with Ernie Johnson Jr., Dennis Eckersley and returning analyst Cal Ripken Jr. – also might be used on TBS’ postseason coverage, which includes the first round and this year’s ALCS.

•Nobody does self-promotion like ESPN, which this week ran ESPY nominations on its bottom-screen scroll, as if they carried the same importance as baseball scores.

•Last month, when Barry Melrose was linked to the Tampa Bay Lightning coach job (which he has since taken), ESPN’s bottom-line scroll ran a quote from Melrose saying how much he likes working at ESPN. But nothing has been more self-serving than ESPN polluting its bottom-screen scroll with Lee Corso’s and Kirk Herbstreit’s college football picks – which only slow the reporting of, um, actual scores.