ST. LOUIS -- The family of St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck said brain surgery aimed at controlling Parkinson's disease has left him feeling better than he has in six or seven years.

"Over the last three months, I think the greatest day we have had as a family and he has had as a patient was yesterday," his son, Fox broadcaster Joe Buck, said Wednesday. "The way he came out of the surgery was amazing, considering the condition he was in going into the surgery."

Joe Buck said doctors believe his father will be able to leave the hospital in about three weeks.

"This is tremendously encouraging," he said.

Jack Buck, 77, has been hospitalized for nearly 11 weeks with a variety of ailments. The Hall of Fame announcer two procedures Tuesday, approximately four hours each, in which neurosurgeons implanted two devices known as deep-brain stimulators.

The stimulation disrupts brain signals that cause the disabling symptoms of the disease, such as tremors, stiffness, difficulty talking and slow movement.

"It tends to normalize their symptoms considerably," said Dr. Joshua L. Dowling, who implanted the devices.

Joe Buck said the device hasn't been turned on yet and that his father was not taking his Parkinson's medication at the time of the operation. Even so, Buck said his father's improvement is very noticeable, and doctors say that's a good sign.

"He's like himself," Joe Buck said. "He looks younger and his face is more relaxed than it has been in years."

Buck has been at Barnes-Jewish Hospital since a Jan. 3 operation to remove an intestinal blockage. In December, he had surgery to treat lung cancer.

He recovered from those operations but was weakened by a series of infections, including pneumonia, that developed. By helping him control the symptoms of Parkinson's, Joe Buck said the stimulators will help his father get out of bed and off a ventilator.

"This is his ticket out of here," Buck said. "If he can continue to breathe at a better rate, continue to get up and move around, that's the only way he's going to get better."