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Blue Jays Re-Sign TV Announcers

Jason Barrett

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Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler have signed five-year contracts to remain in their roles as television broadcasters for the Blue Jays.

Sportsnet, which owns the rights to all of Toronto’s regular-season games, announced the deals on Thursday afternoon. Martinez will continue his play-by-play responsibilities, while Tabler will remain in his role as a colour analyst.

Martinez and Tabler are former Blue Jays who have been calling games together on Sportsnet since 2010. Tabler started his broadcasting career in 2001, while Martinez’s experience dates back to the late 1980s and includes a couple of different stints with the Blue Jays.

“When I started broadcasting in Toronto in 1987 I never would have anticipated I would be here as long as I have, but when I was brought back as the play-by-play analyst in 2010 it was a tremendous feeling to return,” Martinez said in a statement.

“At that time, I stepped into the unknown as the play-by-play guy but now, looking ahead to the next five years I couldn’t be happier. When I look at the team we work with — the team we have in the truck, the team in the booth and working alongside Pat Tabler — it has been nothing but a joy.”

Tabler was a member of Toronto’s 1992 World Series team. He was an All-Star in 1987, had a career average of .282 and received particular notoriety for his .489 average with the bases loaded.

“It’s a pleasure to bring the fans Blue Jays baseball,” Tabler said. “I am happy to be coming back. I played on great teams as a player and now we have a great team here. It’s awesome to come to work every single day and hang around these guys. We have the best jobs in the world, because we get to watch baseball, be around the team, and we get to talk baseball for three hours every night. You can’t beat that.”

Credit to the Toronto Blue Jays website where this story was published

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Dan Patrick to Appear in December Episode of The Simpsons

“I’ve had a couple of sessions, and I only had like four lines, five lines.”

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A photo of Dan Patrick and The Simpsons logo
(Photo: FOX Sports Radio, 20th Century Fox)

For a sports radio host, Dan Patrick has quite an impressive list of IMDb credits. He will add a new one next month, when he appears on The Simpsons.

During The Dan Patrick Show Tuesday, the legendary sportscaster mentioned that several of the voices for the show are reaching senior citizen status, putting future seasons in question. Patrick joked that the show’s guest booker, Todd Fritz, could be a natural replacement for Julie Kavner as the voice of Marge Simpson.

After joking that Fritz would want to change the script too often, Patrick revealed he would appear in an upcoming episode, and changing the script wouldn’t be an easy proposition.

“I’m on an episode that — I think — comes out on Christmas Eve (of) The Simpsons” Patrick admitted. “I’ve had a couple of sessions, and I only had like four lines, five lines. They wanna hear what they wanna hear.”

Patrick continued by noting that when he worked at ESPN, former co-worker Kenny Mayne was notorious for wanting to change the scripts of commercials during the “This is SportsCenter” campaigns.

“Kenny would always go ‘Hey, how about this?’ or ‘What about this?’, and I’d say ‘Let’s just stick to the script. They really have a good track record here.'”

He added that the voiceover artists on the program have deserved the millions they’ve made during the show’s long-running tenure.

“They’re extremely talented. They do a variety of voices there…that show has been on for how many decades? (It’s) still funny (and) relevant,” Patrick said.

On his IMDb page, Dan Patrick has 36 acting credits to his name, with the majority coming from projects with Adam Sandler.

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Matt Jones: ‘I’m Not Ashamed to Have Epilepsy’

“It’s a medical condition, and there is nothing I can do about it. I take medication, and that helps, and I wanted to show people that you can have a condition like that and still succeed…”

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Matt Jones
Courtesy: Simon & Schuster

In a Netflix documentary series released in September, Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones is seen having an epileptic seizure. He has shared why he allowed the video to be shown.

In an interview with Lexington TV station WKYT, Jones says he wants others with epilepsy to know they’re not alone.

“I think the world is a better place when people realize they are not the only ones feeling whatever it is they are feeling,” Jones said.

He shared that talking about the effects the condition has on him breaks down the stigma.

“You know I’m not ashamed to have epilepsy; it’s a medical condition, and there is nothing I can do about it. I take medication, and that helps, and I wanted to show people that you can have a condition like that and still succeed and still go through life, and you should not be ashamed of it,” he said.

The Kentucky Sports Radio host said his first seizure happened when he was 22, which is rare because most people with epilepsy suffer it at an earlier age. He said the seizure he suffered while filming the Netflix series Wrestlers — which features a behind-the-scenes look at Ohio Valley Wrestling and attempts to save the promotion in which Jones is a partner — was one of the worst he’s ever experienced.

Matt Jones told the TV station his only hesitation in showing the footage was he didn’t want his mother to see it.

“The director talked to me about airing it. He basically said are you okay with airing it? My initial inclination was no, not because of me, but because of my mother, and I didn’t want her to have to see it. She had never seen me have one,” Jones concluded.

November is Epilepsy Awareness Month. 1 in 26 people in the United States suffer from the condition.

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Ben Wagner Out As Blue Jays Radio Voice After Sportsnet Contract Not Renewed

“Thank you, Ben, for sharing your voice and expertise with listeners across Canada.”

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Ben Wagner
Courtesy: Ben Wagner on Instagram

Toronto Blue Jays radio play-by-play announcer Ben Wagner will not be on the team’s broadcasts next season, Sportsnet announced on Wednesday morning.

The company posted a statement on X that divulged that it decided not to renew his contract for the next season. The new radio broadcast booth for the team will be announced prior to the start of the 2024 Blue Jays season.

“Thank you, Ben, for sharing your voice and expertise with listeners across Canada,” the statement read. “We wish you the very best.”

Wagner had served as the radio voice of the team for the last six seasons and called road games remotely for the last several years following the COVID-19 pandemic. He was briefly taken off the radio broadcasts when Sportsnet decided to simulcast its television broadcast on radio; however, that move was expeditiously reversed.

During this past season, Wagner worked alongside color commentator Chris Leroux and had the opportunity to travel to call the team’s Wild Card Series against the Tampa Bay Rays, which ended in a 2-0 loss. The Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels were the only two MLB teams not to send their broadcasters on the road during the 2023 MLB regular season.

Upon graduating from Indiana State University with a degree in radio and television, Ben Wagner worked as the director of media and public relations for the Lakewood BlueClaws, a Class-A Minor League Baseball team for which he also served as its play-by-play announcer.

Three years later, he called games for the Buffalo Bisons in Triple-A for the next 11 seasons before replacing Jerry Howarth as the radio play-by-play voice of the Blue Jays.

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