Former Blue Jay Buck Martinez is back in Toronto to call play-by-play on Toronto Blue Jays broadcasts for Rogers Sportsnet.
Martinez, a catcher who played six seasons with the Toronto squad, is the new voice on "Jays on Rogers Sportsnet".
"I’m excited to join the Sportsnet team," said Martinez, who managed the Jays from 2000 to 2002. "I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to call play-by-play, and living up to the great tradition that has been established by Tom Cheek, Jim Hughson and Dan Shulman."
Rick Briggs-Jude, Vice President of Production at Sportsnet, is delighted to have Martinez on the Jays’ broadcast.
"Buck brings a passion for the game and our profession” said Briggs-Jude, who has worked with Martinez previously. “He has grown into a polished, accomplished, and complete broadcaster. I am thrilled to add him to our broadcast crew.”
Sportsnet viewers most recently enjoyed Martinez’s work on the 2009 National League Championship Series on TBS.
After a successful 17-year Major League career as a catcher with the Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers and Blue Jays, Martinez has enjoyed great success as a broadcaster as well. He won an Emmy Award for Best Sports Special in 1995 for his work as an analyst on ESPN’s telecast of the game in which Cal Ripken, Jr. broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played. Buck worked for ESPN as both a game analyst and studio commentator from 1992 to 2000 and worked selected ESPN games from 2002 to 2007. Buck was an analyst for ESPN Radio during the baseball postseason.
In 2003, Buck became a member of the Baltimore Orioles TV broadcast team, and shared duties as the club’s analyst with Hall of Famer Jim Palmer. In 2005, Buck joined XM Satellite Radio as XM started its all-baseball Home Plate Channel. He is a Monday-Friday morning show co-host for XM.
Buck’s prior work includes analysis on Jays television broadcasts (1987-2000) and national broadcasts for Telemedia Radio Network in Canada (1984-1987). He also covered the All-Star Game, playoffs and World Series for Telemedia.
