{"id":561001,"date":"2026-02-08T11:31:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T11:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/561001\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T11:31:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T11:31:41","slug":"legendary-blue-jays-announcer-buck-martinez-retiring-months-after-yankees-rant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/561001\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary Blue Jays announcer Buck Martinez retiring \u2014 months after Yankees rant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legendary Blue Jays announcer Buck Martinez\u2019s career ends in the World Series.<\/p>\n

Martinez announced his retirement<\/a> Friday in a statement, citing that he and wife Arlene came to the decision that he should step away from the booth through conversations after the season.<\/p>\n

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He went on to thank the Blue Jays and their fanbase, along with Sportsnet, Toronto\u2019s broadcasting partner. He added that he will miss taking selfies, shaking hands and seeing the smiles of fans everyday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had hoped to be part of the 50th year of the Toronto Blue Jays but it\u2019s time to pass the torch. Enjoy 2026 and beyond, I will see you down the road,\u201d Martinez wrote at the end of his statement.<\/p>\n

Before getting into broadcasting, Martinez enjoyed a 17-year MLB playing career.<\/p>\n

From 1969-86, he batted .225 with 58 homers and 321 RBIs. His final six seasons were spent in Toronto after a trade to the Canadian franchise, which Martinez referenced in his statement.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe I came to Toronto in a trade in May of 1981, thinking that would be the end of a very good career,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cLittle did I know that I still would be associated with the Blue Jays through the 2025 season.\u201d<\/p>\n

After retiring in 1986, Martinez immediately turned to the mic as the Blue Jays\u2019 color analyst in 1987. He then spent a few years as the color commentator for the Baltimore Orioles\u2019 broadcasts, even winning a Sports Emmy Award for helping broadcast Cal Ripken Jr.\u2019s 2,131st straight game.<\/p>\n

In 2010, he returned to the Blue Jays and remained with the team before taking a leave of absence in 2022 to undergo treatment for cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Buck<\/p>\n

Buck Martinez began broadcasting for the Blue Jays in 1987, and his last year with the team will be in 2025. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Last year, he came under fire for comments he made about the Yankees<\/a> on a Blue Jays broadcast.<\/p>\n

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Following New York\u2019s 10-run loss<\/a> to the Detroit Tigers, Martinez eviscerated the Bronx Bombers\u2019 playstyle, ultimately foreshadowing their eventual loss to Toronto in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Yankees \u2014 they\u2019re not a good team,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI don\u2019t care what their record is. They have a lot of wild pitches, they make a lot of mistakes in the field, they don\u2019t run the bases very well. If they don\u2019t hit home runs, they don\u2019t have a chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s career with the Blue Jays ended in nearly the best way it could have.<\/p>\n

Toronto made the World Series for the first time this century and fell one win<\/a> \u2014 and two outs \u2014 away from downing the Dodgers in Game 7.<\/p>\n

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Now, Martinez will watch from the stands as Toronto tries to finish the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary Blue Jays announcer Buck Martinez\u2019s career ends in the World Series. Martinez announced his retirement Friday in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[47,5,377,2554,15529,53,39,4,1414,282,70,2553,142],"class_list":["post-561001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-blue-jays","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-bluejays","tag-buck-martinez","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-the-blue-jays","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-torontobluejays","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116034791231910739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}