Buck Martinez has experienced all sides of America’s favourite pastime over his almost 50-year career. In his new book, Change Up: How to Make the Great Game of Baseball Even Better, Martinez details his plan for a brighter MLB future. Here, he shares some of the secrets to his success, including why it’s easy to be the hotshot – in hindsight.
You can’t Google emotion
Being a sports announcer has changed so much since I started, with all of the information that’s available online and everyone having their say on social media. It means that, in my position, you have to work harder to bring something else to the conversation – to tell people something that they can’t just get from a Google search. You do that through research, by talking to the coaches and the players and by figuring out how to tell a story that’s bigger than the numbers. In 1995, I was announcing the game in which Cal Ripken Jr. beat Lou Gehrig’s record for most consecutive games played. Instead of going over the same stuff that everyone already knew, I talked about Ripken’s relationship with his father, Cal Ripken Sr., who had been such an influential figure in his son’s career. I talked about what the day would mean for Ripken senior and how baseball is a game of fathers and sons and mothers and sons and generations. People respond to emotional narratives – that’s one thing that doesn’t change.
Know it, don’t show it
One of the secrets to being a good interviewer is knowing enough to get the person you are interviewing to say what you want them to say. So often, people in my position will feel the need to share all of this information with the audience, but the reality is that nobody wants to hear from me on why Jose Bautista’s game has improved, they want to hear it from him. So you kind of set things up and then you hang back. It’s not often that I hear something that I didn’t know already, but that’s not the point. It’s my job to know all of these things, but it’s also my job to make sure that the audience hears the information from the right person.
Some naturals are made, not born
It was my wife who suggested that I take some acting lessons and speech lessons early on in my career as an announcer. I learned all kinds of things about how you finish your words, how to speak from your diaphragm. I don’t think voice training is necessarily something that a lot of people in my field have done, but I really think that that has been my path to success in life: I was never the most talented person on the field, but I was always willing to do the work, to go that little ways extra.
To read more visit the Toronto Globe and Mail where this article was originally published
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
