Charles Barkley and the rest of the Inside the NBA crew have new contracts from Warner Bros. Discovery. Chuck’s in particular is said to be very lucrative. Certainly it is the kind of thing that raised the eyebrows of other Turner Sports personalities. Pedro Martinez said the money would be nice, but he is not on that level yet.
“Chuck is a special breed, you know? Chuck is a special breed,” he said on the latest edition of the Marchand and Ourand podcast. “I hope someday I can be like him, but I still have a lot to learn.”
Turner Sports would certainly like to see an analyst for all of the sports they cover emerge as a Barkley-like figure – someone who is brutally honest and funny while also being highly educated about the game.
Pedro Martinez seemed like a safe bet to fit that description in the baseball world. He admitted that there were some similarities between he and Charles Barkley in the way they dealt with the media during their playing days.
“I never was able to hide my thoughts, my feelings to whatever situation there was,” he said. “There were some misunderstandings. I don’t think anyone ever imagined that I was the person I was when I took the uniform off, because on my days to pitch, I did not want to have friends. I did not want to talk to anybody. I was just just a team player and I wanted to protect my players and I wanted to do whatever it took to beat the opposition.”
Martinez described himself as “a geek” in all matters of baseball. He finds every aspect of the game fascinating and is grateful to have the opportunity to earn a living talking about the game. He thinks that is possible because even the reporters and fans that may not have loved him during his playing days recognized that he never mislead them.
“When you’re really honest and you speak your mind and you’re gonna say what you’re gonna say, even when you call the Yankees your daddy, I think the media loves it. I think the media appreciates an honest answer and I always gave an honest answer and a true answer. I would not hide from answering whatever question you have.”
