Buck Martinez
Buck Martinez
John Albert "Buck" Martinez, nicknamed "The Grey Jay", is an American former professional baseball catcher and manager, and is currently the television play-by-play announcer for the Toronto Blue Jays. He played 17 seasons in Major League Baseballwith the Kansas City Royals, the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Toronto Blue Jays. Since the end of his playing career, he has been a broadcaster, working on The Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles radio and television broadcasts, and nationally for TBS...
ProfessionSportscaster
Date of Birth7 November 1948
CityRedding, CA
beginning innings starters strength team three
The starters are just going to go three innings at the beginning of the tournament. But we think the strength of our team is the relievers.
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I sensed it was a kind of a bitter moment for them both. I've known them both for a long time, and we really thought they would bring a lot to our team. Then we got down into the numbers of the things and it just didn't work out.
average bit everybody expects hear mystery submitted
They are a little bit of a mystery because of the uncertainty of who they are going to bring. We hear that the roster that they have submitted has an average age of 24. That's a pretty young roster. It's kind of surprising, but everybody expects that they will have a very representative team.
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The World Baseball Classic is going to have an extraordinary impact on the sport. The magnitude of the Classic is enormous. It's designed to further expand the international appeal of baseball, and I think its mission is very similar to XM, which has done an amazing job of adding to the growth and popularity of baseball by giving fans greater access to the game.
aspect created korea unique
That's the way it is -- we created it ourselves. That's the unique aspect of this. Now, it's up to Korea and Japan.
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That's the perils of pool play. You have to be conscious of not falling too far behind and having big run differentials. You have to continue to grind.
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I expect them to be very supportive, and I think that will fuel the USA fans once they get into this atmosphere. From my understanding in Tucson, they had sombreros and their faces painted and a lot of Mexican flags. It was a bullfight-kind-of-atmosphere, so that will be beautiful in this tournament.
brings character everybody felt guy opinion respect
Luis Gonzalez has the respect of everybody in baseball, and his opinion is very valued. He's always been a character guy that we respect a lot. We felt that he brings everything we want on this team.
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The players have been aware that they were going to be involved with this for a while now. But we're taking three catchers for a reason. You can't expect to catch this much this early without getting sore. Fourteen pitchers is another obvious thing. As for the players, we'll take things on an individual basis. For example, Ken Griffey told me he'd be ready to go.
format learned obviously
Obviously they got a wakeup call. One thing we have learned in the international format is that anything can happen.
call last
Obviously, they got a wakeup call last night.
angels white
It's not that much different than what the White Sox have done, what the Angels did in 2002. It's execution, it's fundamentals. They do not make any mistakes.
bunch eric guys
It's unfortunate that we can't take more than 30 because there are a bunch of guys that were committed, just like Eric Chavez.
anxious character guys proud step
That's one of the things I'm most proud of is the character of the guys on this roster. They're anxious to step up and play for their country.