Voice of Jerry Buchek

By Greg Echlin

As one of the few in baseball history who could brag that he hit for 1.000 in the World Series, there was something else that stood out about former major league infielder Jerry Buchek who died on Jan. 2—no one could say anything bad about him as a human being.  In that regard, you say that Buchek also batted 1.000.

Buchek played in only 35 games on the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals World Series championship team, but with a team packed with stars like Ken Boyer and Tim McCarver, plus Hall of Famers Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, Buchek adapted to his role as a part-timer.  In fact, Buchek called another back-up, catcher Bob Uecker, one of the team’s most valuable players.

“The thing is his humor kept everybody so loose,” said Buchek.

In late June and early July when 20 days passed without Buchek seeing a single inning on the field, Buchek said he approached Uecker, “I said, ‘Bob, how come me and you don’t play?’  He said, ‘Jerry, I play more than you.  I back up McCarver.’”

Buchek said Uecker told him he would approach manager Johnny Keane about their lack of playing time and get back to him a few days later.  Unbeknownst to Buchek, Uecker had no intention of talking to Keane about it.  Rather, Uecker shared Buchek’s concerns with the rest of the ballclub as a setup to a prank.

So when Buchek followed up a few days later to see Uecker had talked to Keane, Uecker with all their teammates clued in on their conversation said that he was given a reason by Keane why Buchek wasn’t playing.

Buchek said, “He (Uecker) looked at me stone-faced in the eye and said, ‘Yeah, the reason you’re not playing is because they want to win the pennant.’  He walked away laughing and that was it.  All the guys started cracking up.”

Of the four starting infielders—Ken Boyer, Dick Groat, Julian Javier and Bill White—the fewest games played by any of them in ’64 were 155 by Javier.  Boyer played in every game.  Groat sat out only one and White two.

But Buchek made it to the big leagues with the team he rooted for while growing up in St. Louis and he got a ring.  On Aprils Fools Day in 1967, Buchek thought he was the butt of another joke when he was called into the office of manager Red Schoendienst and told that he was traded.

But it was true.  Buchek’s final two years in the big leagues in ’67 and ’68 were spent with the New York Mets.

When looking back on his big league career, Buchek said, “It was just a tremendous time in my life because I got to meet so many neat people.”

Anybody who crossed paths with Jerry Buchek would agree that he was one neat guy, too.