Buck Martinez reflects on his life with the Blue Jays ahead of Hall of Excellence honour

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Depending on the genesis of your attachment to the Blue Jays, you’ve experienced Buck Martinez in any combination of three incarnations, each of them colourful in their own enjoyable way.

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There was the playing career, one that he was convinced would last one season in Toronto and ended up extending through six and ultimately planting roots for the glory years of his life.

There was the broadcasting career, first at TSN and then later and more prominently at Sportsnet that endeared the California native to generations of Jays fans.

And there was a brief stint as manager when the brewery that owned the team hoped that a friendly and recognizable face might help resuscitate some of the franchise’s lagging popularity at the time.

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Combined, it meant Martinez was a Blue Jay for parts of five decades through his three-career attachment to the team. For that, he will be honoured on Saturday as the inaugural inductee into the Jays’ Hall of Excellence, which replaces the Level of Excellence, which currently honours the franchise legends.

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It will be an emotional afternoon at the Rogers Centre when a pre-game ceremony prior to a game between the Jays and Seattle Mariners honours Martinez.

Surrounded by family, friends and some of his most-treasured teammates such as George Bell and Dave Stieb — and another sellout crowd — it will be a fitting fete for Martinez, the beloved voice of the franchise and, in his own way, its unofficial ambassador.

The celebration for Buck will be even more meaningful given that he had desperately wanted to be part of the team’s 50th season celebrations. But after battling cancer for more then two years, Martinez had his biggest scare yet this past January, one that drained him and recalibrated his priorities.

After stubbornly winning that latest and toughest medical battle yet, the 77-year-old figured it was time to step back, count his blessings and live his best life with his wife, Arlene.

“I’m cancer-free now, everything is good,” Martinez told us in an interview. “I’m getting better all the time. I had a setback and it was pretty rough, but that’s behind me now.

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“I’m really looking forward to Saturday. It should be fabulous.”

Through it all, Martinez was the consummate story-teller, which frankly is what we miss most about him in retirement now. With that in mind, we forwarded Buck a handful of pictures from his career and asked him for his recollections.

So on to a selection of snapshots from Saturday’s honouree, complete with narration from Buck himself, in all his vivid, colourful detail.

Pie-in-the-face broadcaster

As he transitioned from player to broadcaster, it wasn’t always easy for Martinez, a common challenge for those moving from the field to the press box.

One season he’s sitting in a clubhouse as one of the guys, the next he’s trying to explain why that same dude can’t get his batting average above .200.

“The first couple of years, it was rough because you’re talking about your former teammates,” Martinez said in our interview. “I had an incident that first year in spring training when I was doing reports with Pat Marsden for TSN. At the time, there was a rumour going around that the Jays were going to trade Ernie Whitt for Lance Parrish.”

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Long story short, but among the changes there was talk of Sal Campusano moving to centre field, which would have required a position change for veteran Lloyd Moseby.

Back to Buck, who forthrightly weighed in.

“I said something like Lloyd Moseby was never a top centre fielder, but might be a Gold Glove left fielder,” Martinez said.

“So the next day, (former Toronto Sun baseball columnist) Bob Elliott comes up to me and says, ‘How do you feel about the players not talking to you?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘Oh, they’re not talking to you after what you said on the Marsden show last night.'”

Welcome to the airwaves, Buck.

Thankfully, Martinez had a sounding board in veteran broadcaster, Tony Kubek, who gave him one of his first valuable lessons in the craft.

“He talked me off the ledge. He told me that I didn’t question their personality and that I didn’t question their morality and that I just gave an opinion. He told me I have enough baseball experience to express my opinion and that I didn’t do anything wrong. It was awesome.”

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Which brings us to the pie-in-the-face photo, which happened at spring training in Dunedin in 1987, his first year with TSN.

Martinez, with mic flash in hand, got pranked by pitcher Bill Caudill, his former teammate.

“He got me back from something the year before, it was just part of it,” Martinez said. “I used to get on him about eating donuts, him and Ernie Whitt. He was just getting me back for some of the things I had said in fun.”

The broken-leg double play

For those scoring at home, it was the all-too-rare, 9-2-7-2 double play. For Martinez, it was the most famous baseball act of his career, a violent collision at the plate that is still painful to watch.

The year was 1985 and at age 36, Martinez was nearing the end of his career as a big-league catcher. And, yes, there are stories attached to it starting with the fact that he wasn’t supposed to play that day.

“I wasn’t supposed to play that day,” Martinez recalled. “(Manager) Bobby Cox called Bobby I was always early at the park and Bobby called me into the office and said you’re catching tonight.

“I had just a horrible year. I wasn’t doing much. That last game I played I was hitting .162 and I just couldn’t get anything going.”

And then it got worse. At the old Kingdome in Seattle, Martinez was catching and, when he went to make a play at the plate on a throw from Jesse Barfield, Martinez was run over by the Mariners’ Phil Bradley and the violent collision broke his leg.

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In pain and shock, Martinez still kept his baseball wits about him. After making the out, he sat up and somehow made a throw to third to try to nab Gorman Thomas. That ball sailed over Garth Iorg at third and headed to left fielder, George Bell.

“Bell picks it up and all the while I’m scurrying to get into position to take the throw sitting on my ass,” Martinez recalled. “And George bounced it right into my glove. It was a 9-2-7-2 double play.”

That last sentence, understandably and justifiably, was uttered with pride, once again describing a play he has been asked about more than any other in his career.

“Everybody remembers that,” he said. “They remember two things about my career: As a player, when I broke my leg, and as a broadcaster when I didn’t talk for 22 minutes.”

The latter was one of Martinez’s finest moments as a broadcaster, back in the 1990s when he worked for ESPN. Calling the game alongside Chris Berman, the pair didn’t say a word for 22 minutes in the fourth inning when the game became official and the Orioles’ Cal Ripken eclipsed Lou Gehrig’s iron-man record by playing 2,131 consecutive games.

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The walk-off home run

While it wasn’t a spectacular playing career, few stay in the big leagues for 17 years without having some talent.

Buck mixed his natural ability with a grittiness that made him a survivor, a gamer and ultimately an ideal teammate.

And yes, there were some big moments as well. We take you back to June 6, 1985, at old Exhibition Stadium when Martinez was ultimately the hero, but also had a front row seat to one an outstanding pitching performance.

Backing up Ernie Whitt, Martinez watched as Jays starter Jimmy Key pitched 10 innings, losing a no-hit bit in the ninth. Those were the type of pitching performances Martinez has long relished and often lamented the absence of later in his broadcasting career.

“I came into the game after Manny Lee ran for Ernie Whitt in the 11th and I got the home run off of (Aurelio Lopez) in the 12th,” Martinez recalled. “George Bell got hit by a pitch and I hit a home run.

“It was definitely my most memorable home run with the Blue Jays. The Tigers were the defending World Series champions and it was the first time they came to Toronto that year. We won the game and went seven and a half games up on them.”

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Buck the manager

Though he was ultimately known most for his playing career and flourished as a broadcaster, you get the sense that Martinez wishes his brief managerial stint had lasted longer.

Hired by GM Gord Ash in November, 2002, Martinez replaced Jim Fregosi and was the eighth manager in franchise history.

“We had a pretty good team, a lot of good players, we just didn’t have much of a pitching staff,” Martinez recalled. “(Roy) Halladay was going through his thing at the time and we just didn’t get anything going.”

In that first year, the Jays were 80-82 and, while not terrible, it was enough for Ash — who had championed Martinez — to lose his job. When he was replaced by J.P. Ricciardi, Buck felt he was doomed.

Sure enough, after a 20-33 start, he was relieved of his duties in May of 2002, ultimately veering his baseball career back to the broadcast booth.

“I remember J.P. had me fly to Boston to meet him and the first day I met him, I knew he wasn’t going to last,” Martinez said.

And thus continued a career defined by longevity, personality and professionalism for almost another quarter century and has landed John Albert Martinez — or Buck to many who revered that friendly voice — in a spot of Blue Jays immortality.

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