Over the past six decades, Buck Martinez has been a baseball player, a coach, a commentator and an author. His latest book, Change Up, is part autobiography and part treatise on how to improve the game. Post City chatted with the former Blue Jays catcher about the state of the sport and why the bench-clearing brawl between the Jays and the Texas Rangers might be just what the Jays needed to break through into dominance.
What’s the first thing that needs to change about baseball to get it back on track?
I think it’s the way we develop players. It gets back to fundamentals, to the execution of playing the game properly. Baseball needs to understand that the Kansas City Royals winning the World Series was not an accident. Everyone marvelled at the way they made contact, the way they ran the bases, the way they fielded their positions. But that’s just baseball. People say Kansas City reinvented the game, but they didn’t. They went back to the roots.
In your book, you give a lot of praise to first baseman Chris Colabello. What was your reaction when you heard that he had failed a drug test?
I was crushed. I think we all were. When you think about the story that he had, how he spent seven years playing independent baseball, and his love of baseball, I think we’re all scratching our heads. Chris is a very bright guy, and he knew everything that was at stake. I find it very difficult to believe that he did anything intentionally.
The Jays seem to be having trouble breaking out this season. What do they need to do right now?
We keep waiting for the bats to come around. It’s such a good offensive club, but they haven’t been able to really get everything together. I always say it takes about 60 games before your team really has its own identity. The Blue Jays have great pitching, but they haven’t had enough run support.
How do these Jays compare to the pinnacle Jays of the early ’90s?
They’re very similar. I think the only real difference is the fact that the Jays then had a terrific bullpen, loaded with people who eventually became starters. We thought it was going to be the same type of team last season. The potential is there for this team to do that, but we’re waiting on the potential to deliver.
You write about the physicality of the game, that it’s less physical now than it was. Why is that a bad thing?
They’ve changed the rules so much that you’ve taken out some of the most exciting plays in the game: the play at home plate, the slide at second base, the anticipation of a base runner breaking up a double play.
Speaking of physicality, things got pretty physical between the Jays and the Rangers in their last game. Thoughts?
The Blue Jays have been kind of sputtering, and they haven’t been able to string together wins. Sometimes things like that have a way of unifying a team, galvanizing a team and reminding them that they are a team.
Have you ever seen a better punch in baseball than the one Rougned Odor threw at Jose Bautista?
Not many. One time John Mayberry hit Jim Kaat right in the nose and broke it. That was as good as I’ve seen. But Odor’s was a pretty good one, and he looked like he’s been there before. The only mistake Jose made is that he didn’t come up swinging, after that hard slide, because there was so much tension and animosity that he had to expect something was going to happen.
What are your thoughts on the bat flip? Was it even a big deal?
No, not at all. Everybody forgets that Texas made the errors that allowed Bautista to have that opportunity. It was a 53-minute inning, and the Jays were on the verge of elimination. They came back and took the lead and went on to win. There was a lot of emotion in that stadium, and I don’t think anyone would have done anything differently with that kind of emotion.
