Broadcaster Buck Martinez opens up on future in the booth with the Toronto Blue Jays and feud with Yankees
Photo credit: https://www.blogto.com/
The voice of the Toronto Blue Jays feels energized by the team's MLB postseason run after battle with lung cancer.
At age 76 and after spending most of a wonderful lifetime in the game, there's no quit in Buck Martinez.
Despite a trying season personally, as Martinez has gamely battled lung cancer, he has shown no signs of letting up. In fact, it's the opposite.
Clearly energized by this impressive Blue Jays season and the renewed opportunity to engage that passionate viewership with his unique style of story-telling, in many ways Martinez has rarely sounded better.
«This is all going to come to an end some time, but the way I feel right now and with everything going on with the team and on the broadcast, I'm not sure that end is in sight,» Martinez said this week in an interview with the Toronto Sun. «It's so much fun being here every day with these guys and being blessed with the opportunity to tell their stories.»
After such an invigorating season, both personally and professionally, Martinez is ready for a long run into October. He was certainly keen to share some of those thoughts in our chat.
Buck Marinez has a new found energy about him
Given his age and all he has battled through the past few years - and especially this year with his ongoing cancer treatment - it would be easy for Martinez to ponder the end of a run that will go down in history as one of the best in Canadian broadcasting history.
Instead, living through what he has - including spending a good portion of his summer getting treatment in Houston - he's feeling revived.
«Absolutely. Just like the players,» Martinez said. «When you have something taken away from you and you sit back and watch it from a distance, you appreciate what you have and you appreciate what you have been missing.
«It energizes me. It's great to be around and it makes me appreciate everything I've gone through. I'm blessed to be around this team.»
Martinez has rationalized for a while that he won't be calling games forever, but in recent years has managed his time by trimming some games from his schedule.
These playoffs, he has been mindful of getting his rest to stay sharp and prepared, a task helped by having his wife Arlene with him on the road.
And yes, the two of them have broached the subject of when he will wind it down.
«My wife and I, sure we have talked about it, but we both feel the same way,» the California native said. «We both feel I'm still pretty good at this and we both know how much I love what I'm doing. So why would I walk away from it? There will be a time for that. But right now I feel really good.
«The guys I work with on the crew and everyone around the team, it's so much fun being here every day. It's just been great that way.»
Buck's banter with Yankees manager Aaron Boone left no hard feelings
A handful of playful exchanges with Yankees manager Aaron Boone that some suggested meant hard feelings between the two is really anything but - in the mind of Martinez, anyway.
In a press conference earlier in the series, Boone fired back at Martinez for comments the broadcaster had made earlier about the Yankees not being a good team.
«I know Buck has some thoughts, that's all I was responding to,» Boone said at the Rogers Centre. «He's wrong. But it doesn't matter.»
Martinez had a laugh, albeit a nervous one when he and partner Dan Shulman walked into the visiting manager's office at the Rogers Centre for a pre-game meeting with Boone prior to Saturday's Game 1.
«We meet with him every day and, the first day, he said to me, 'I hate your hair.' We both laughed,» Martinez said.
While mostly playful, the exchanges had an air of seriousness to them, something that was cleared up back the next day.
«Before Game 2 (Boone) said to me, 'We're good?,'» Martinez said. «And to me, that meant we were. You never know. There were some pretty strong words. I was a little anxious when I walked into see him but he was gracious. He understands how this works.»
The larger issue at play is Martinez's view of how the job should be done, advice he was given by a legendary Blue Jays broadcaster decades ago.
«It's something Tony Kubek talked to me about a long time ago, that not only do I have a right to my opinion but that it is my job and it's very important that I share those opinions,» Martinez said.
And the longer he gets to do it, the better Blue Jays fans will be served as a result.
Source: Toronto Sun
Credit: Rob Longley
This article first appeared in the Toronto Sun
Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez opens up on future and viral feud with Yankees
Credit: Rob Longley
This article first appeared in the Toronto Sun
Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez opens up on future and viral feud with Yankees
| POLL | ||
2 HOURS AGO | 25 ANSWERS Broadcaster Buck Martinez opens up on future in the booth with the Toronto Blue Jays and feud with Yankees Do you think Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez will be back in the booth for 2026? | ||
TRENDING NOW
