40 years ago today.
On July 9, 1985, Mariner outfielder Phil Bradley ran over Blue Jays catcher Buck Martinez, a play that ended Buck’s season.
What happened on the play: Bradley was on second base, and Gorman Thomas lined a single to right. Jesse Barfield made his usual terrific throw to the plate, and Bradley was an easy out, so he crashed into Martinez. Unfortunately, Martinez’s leg broke, and while he was on the ground in pain, Thomas went for third base (not precisely sporting, but the play was still in progress; perhaps the umpire could have called the play dead to let the trainers get out to help?). Buck, in pain, on the ground, threw to third but missed, and the ball went to left fielder George Bell.
Gorman went home, and Bell threw home. Amazingly, Buck caught the ball, and Thomas, who wasn’t exactly fast and didn’t want to run into Buck and add to his injury, was tagged out. I don’t know how Buck managed to keep his mind focused.
Bradley had been one of my favourite players. He was an excellent leadoff type, got on base great, stole bases, and had mid-range power. He didn’t age well. He was out of baseball at 32.
Thomas was a low-average, big-power guy. By 1985, his career was winding down; he was 35, but he still had 32 home runs that year.
Buck was 36 at the time, hitting just .162/.239/.313 with four home runs. He was never great with the bat, but in his mid-30s, he was slowing.
Martinez did come back for the 1986 season. He played in 81 games, hitting .181/.271/.269 with two home runs.
He went into broadcasting immediately after his career, working as the colour commentator for the Jays’ games on TSN.
Then, in 2001, he became the manager of the Blue Jays. He led the Jays to an 80-82 record in 2001. However, the 2002 season didn’t start well; the Jays were 20-33 on June 2, and J. P. Ricciardi had seen enough.
He returned to the booth, where he provided colour commentary for Orioles TV broadcasts from 2003 to 2009. Then, you know the rest, he came back to do play-by-play for the Jays starting in 2010. Now he’s the analyst, working with Dan Shulman.