Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum have named longtime Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster Buck Martinez the 2023 Jack Graney Award winner.
It’s named after the legendary Cleveland Indians outfielder- who is also a St. Thomas native- and is presented annually to a member of the media who has made significant lifelong contributions to Canadian baseball.
For those unfamiliar with the career of Buck Martinez, it began 1969 in when he made his major league debut as a catcher with the Kansas City Royals. He played in 1,049 games in parts of 17 big league seasons with the Royals, Milwaukee Brewers and Blue Jays.
His full-time broadcast career began in 1987 when he was hired to be a colour commentator on TSN’s Blue Jays broadcasts. In 1992, Martinez began working with ESPN Radio and TV and in 1995 he earned a Sports EMMY Award for his work on ESPN’s coverage of Cal Ripken’s 2,131st consecutive game.
After leaving the booth to serve as the Blue Jays manager for parts of two seasons in 2001 and 2002, he worked as a TV analyst for the Baltimore Orioles from 2003 to 2009, and won another EMMY, before returning to the Blue Jays TV broadcast crew in 2010.
He has now been part of the Sportsnet TV broadcast team for the past 14 seasons.
In a release from the Hall of Fame, Martinez noted “I was very surprised and happy to hear from the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame that I have been named the 2023 Jack Graney Award winner. There are many great names on the list of past winners, many who I have worked with or alongside for many years. Two names on the list that mean the most to me, giving me a great deal of pleasure to join them are Tom Cheek and Len Bramson. Without their support and direction I would not have had the wonderful career in broadcasting that I have enjoyed!”
Born in St. Thomas in 1886, Graney began his career as a pitcher then transitioned to the outfield, spending his entire major league career with the Cleveland franchise. This included playing as part of Cleveland’s first World Series Championship team in 1920, beating the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Graney entered the record books as the first hitter Red Sox Pitcher Babe Ruth faced in the major leagues on July 11, 1914.
Almost two years later, he became the first major leaguer to bat wearing a number on his uniform and in 1908 was a member of the first All-Star team to tour Asia.
After hanging up his spikes, Graney became the first ex-player to make the transition to the broadcast booth, performing radio play-by-play for Cleveland from 1932 to 1953.
Just last year, July 27th was declared Jack Graney Day in St. Thomas.
Written by: K. Freeman
