Joe Buck will no longer remain anonymous when it comes to his hair-plug addiction.
In his upcoming memoir, “Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, and the Things I’m Not Allowed to Say on TV,” Fox Sports announcer Buck comes clean about how his quest to maintain his hairline nearly cost him his career.
In excerpts published by Sports Illustrated, Buck reveals that he had his first hair-replacement treatment in 1993, after which, “I, Joseph Francis Buck, became a hair-plug addict.”
“Broadcasting is a brutal, often unfair business, where looks are valued more than skill,” the broadcaster says in the book. “I was worried that if I lost my hair, I would lose my job. O.K., that’s bulls—. It was vanity. Pure vanity. I just told myself I was doing it for TV.”
That addiction took its toll during his eighth procedure in 2011, as the baseball season loomed. According to Buck, he woke up after the procedure unable to speak, possibly because his vocal cord became paralyzed due to a protective cuff that was used during his procedure. Buck also theorizes that stress caused by the deterioration of his marriage might have also left him vulnerable to injury.
Buck, embarrassed by the result of his own vanity, blamed the injury on a virus — a canard that Buck is no longer willing to perpetuate.
“I was too scared and embarrassed to tell them the truth,” Buck says in the book. “But I’m doing it now.”
Buck’s memoir is due for publication on November 15.