Buck was a good colour guy 20-30 years ago as a recently-retired player commenting on a game that hadn’t hadn’t changed much since he played.
Unfortunately, since then the sport has changed in a massive way and he simply hasn’t adapted ... and worse, he’s dug in his heels as a protester of that change.
He’s 71 years old and time eventually passes everyone by.
It's the latter that's the real problem. I don't care if he doesn't
embrace new concepts like advanced stats or shifts or whatever. He can laugh about how "it wasn't like that in my day" all he wants and I wouldn't really bat an eye. The problem is when he turns talk about new concepts into a pulpit from which to grouse about how it's ruining the game or how the advancements are stupid and unnecessary from a position of ignorance. I don't need him to love WAR, I just need him to not complain that it's useless because it doesn't do a bunch of things (half of which it does do, he just doesn't know any better) or because he used it incorrectly, got a wrong conclusion, and decided that means it's a bunch of bunk. I don't want him to gush about how smart the opener strategy is, I just want him to stop grousing about how a "real" team builds around 5 horses who throw 7 innings a game 30+ times a season when that doesn't happen anymore (and hasn't happened for years). I don't care if he doesn't laud the way modern data collection has made the shift-happy defence a batter-by-batter occurrence, I just care that he stops "well why don't they just hit it the other way?" crap every time a big shift comes up because *gasp* if that guy could "just hit it the other way" there would
be no shift in the first place. I want him to recognize the faults in pitcher wins or RBI and stop leaning on them as high-value stats. I don't care if he does or doesn't replace either with a newer stat as his go-to analysis touchstone, I just don't want to hear "the point of baseball is to win games by scoring runs, so I'm gonna take the guys on my team who win a lot and drive in a lot of runs" anymore.
If you can't keep up with the progress train, you need to get off at the next station. Buck was, once upon a time, a great part of those TSN booths with him and Dan. He even had some value when he first came back to Sportsnet after his managing stint. But it's clear he's no longer familiar enough with evolution of the game of baseball or its audience to be a valuable insight for viewers. As much as people claim "institution" with broadcasters, every one has a shelf life. And that should be a point before they start becoming parodies of themselves or depressing shadows of what they once were. I know Jerry Howarth retired in large part for health reasons, but he at least also had the good sense to get out while he was still a solid and beloved broadcaster. His legacy won't be tarnished by a decrepit phase where he gets all the names wrong, can't follow the game, or rambles about things he clearly doesn't understand.
