He’s the voice of the Blue Jays — but it’s Buck Martinez’s hair that’s had a moment in the sports news cycle this week.
Martinez, the longtime Jays broadcaster who received a standing ovation when he returned to the booth in August after time away for cancer treatment, revealed earlier this week that his signature style had been dissed by Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
According to Martinez, speaking on the New York Post’s The Show podcast earlier this week, Boone had told him “I don’t like your hair either.”
He says the remark was made before Game 1 of the American League division series between the Blue Jays and Yankees.
It came after Martinez had earlier opined that the Yankees, who the Jays went on to knock out of the playoffs, were “not a good team.”
In an interview with The Toronto Sun published Wednesday, the Blue Jays television colour commentator made it clear that the diss was part of playful ribbing between rivals.
“We both laughed,” he added, later sharing that Boone had approached him before game two to confirm that “we’re good.”
And while this may have just been another potshot in a viral feud, it’s also a testament to Martinez’s iconic mane, says Toronto hair stylist Nicolette Cammellari.
“When someone’s trying to insult someone, they always go for their best attribute first,” says Cammellari, founder of Colette Studio and director of education and product development at haircare brand Mela & Kera. “He has a great head of hair. A comment like that is not called for.”
In fact, Cammellari praises the timeless nature of Martinez’s style, an evolution of the style — albeit without the moustache — he sported while playing in Major League Baseball, including five years as a Blue Jay in the 1980s.
“He’s maintained it throughout to stay up-to-date and trendy, but he’s always maintained that same flow, that pulled back, clean cut hair,” she says. “It’s a very simple look, but he pulls it off and elevates it.”
Martinez’s age, she adds, makes his hair particularly enviable.
“Most women would die for that colour of hair. I hope my hair goes in that direction,” she says, adding that it’s equally rare for 76 year olds to have so much hair on their heads, too. “My dad’s 60, and he definitely wouldn’t be able to pull this off.”
She also compliments his “effortless” styling technique.
“It doesn’t look like he does a lot to it,” Cammellari says. “He kind of brushes it back, and it has that natural wave and coif at the front.”
And while she says that it’s not a style for everyone — “a lot of men get irritated with hair touching their ears, and that’s a big part of his look” — it’s exactly right for Martinez.
“It looks really good on him,” she says.
