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Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez takes home the Jack Graney Award: “It’s an honour to be recognized and included with the former winners”

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This past weekend, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame held the induction ceremony for the 2024 class, which included the likes of former Blue Jays players Russell Martin and Jimmy Key, as well as Paul Godfrey, an influential part in bringing a baseball franchise to the city of Toronto.

During the weekend, the Jack Graney Award was also handed out, with Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez taking home the award for his broadcasting efforts with the Toronto Blue Jays organization.

The award is given to a member of the media who has made a significant contribution to the game of baseball in Canada, whether through numerous contributions or a significant achievement. For Martinez, the California product has been in broadcasting since 1987, with Paul Beeston convincing the former Jays catcher (or more so his wife) that a career with the television broadcast crew was the right move for him at the tail end of his playing career.

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“I had just finished my 17th year in the big leagues and they (Blue Jays) told me I wasn’t going to be back. Beeston called me up to his office and asked me if I wanted to do television and I originally said no, I wanted to keep playing,” said Martinez, speaking to Blue Jays Nation. “Anything less than playing baseball wasn’t a career to me; we were baseball players, and that was everything we had known. I went home and told my wife about the meeting, and after I told her I said no to Beeston about broadcasting, she said, ‘Call him back, you can’t play baseball anymore’. It’s been a wise decision ever since.”

On the field, Martinez finished his career with a .225/.284/.343 slash line with 58 home runs, 321 RBIs and a .627 OPS while suiting up in 1049 games. He spent eight seasons with the Kansas City Royals before heading to Milwaukee in 1978 for three campaigns. Martinez finished his career in Toronto, working behind the plate from 1981 to 1986. Martinez also spent time as the Blue Jays manager from 2001 to 2002, taking over for Jim Fregosi and managing 215 games before being let go after 53 games into his second season.

Martinez began his broadcasting career as the colour analyst for the Jays and joined TSN in the role and eventually began working for ESPN in both radio and TV. He was paired with numerous individuals early in his broadcasting career, including Fergie Olver, Jim Hughson, and Dan Shulman, who he would later link up with later in his career at Sportsnet. Following his Jays managerial stint, he was the colour commentator for the Baltimore Orioles for seven seasons, working alongside Jim Hunter and Gary Thorne, while also hosting on XM Radio.

“I have been fortunate to work with a lot of people… Of course at ESPN, I worked with Chris Berman and we won an Emmy for our call on Cal Ripken’s record-breaking consecutive game. Olver was who I started with and then Jim Hughson, an outstanding broadcaster who left me to cover hockey in Vancouver,” laughed Martinez. “Shulman replaced him and I have been very blessed to work with incredible individuals over time. Jon Miller, Matt Vasgersian, Dave Campbell, Gary Thorne, Chip Caray – there are so many different people across different games who I have worked with who are just fantastic.”

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Martinez returned to Toronto in 2010 and worked as the play-by-play announcer for the Blue Jays at Sportsnet, taking over for Jamie Campbell. He was joined in the booth by Pat Tabler, with the duo working together for most of the Jays games early in the decade before Shulman rejoined the Jays in a part-time capacity in the booth, later taking on full-time duties as the play-by-play announcer with Martinez shifting to colour commentary and Tabler joining Bally Sports to be the Cleveland Guardians colour commentator following the 2022 season.

Over the years, Martinez has also contributed to World Baseball Classic telecasts as well as various All-Star games and the World Series for MLB International.

Earlier into the 2022 campaign, Martinez took a leave of absence just a few weeks into the year as he was undergoing cancer treatment – returning to the booth in late July.

When asked about how Martinez stayed upbeat in the booth given his cancer treatments and adversity off the field, the veteran analyst reflected on his early days in broadcasting, “When I first started broadcasting, I was still playing at the time and would do a three-minute post-game radio bit with my catcher gear still on and I knew my team was listening on the radio, so I had to stay positive regardless of the situation,” said Martinez. “It’s easy to point out the negatives; big leaguers fail seven times out of ten at the plate, so it’s easy to think of those negatives. To play 162 games throughout a season at such a high level, you as a broadcaster have to think and acknowledge the positives and stay positive as well.”

For such a career that is intertwined with the Blue Jays, Martinez takes home the 2023 Jack Graney Award with more than 41 years as a broadcaster. The former catcher has spent the past 14 seasons working the booth covering the Jays and has been on broadcasts in front of Canadians for even longer with his work across various Major League events. He joins the likes of Shulman, Jerry Howarth, and Tom Cheek (amongst others) as broadcasters who covered the Toronto Blue Jays either via television or radio since the award was presented in 1987.

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“It’s such an honour, Jack and I have a lot in common in terms of our playing careers turning into broadcasting careers,” said Martinez. “He and I were broadcasters a lot longer than our playing careers and Jack was a trendsetter when it came to former players turning a playing career into working in the booth, and he was terrific at what he did. To be recognized at the same level as someone who accomplished so much and has done it all before as Jack did, and to be included with such a prestigious list of former winners, a bunch of great broadcasters, I am incredibly humbled to receive the award.”

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