DUNEDIN, Fla. -- If you don't like Buck Martinez, you don't like sunsets, vacations or chocolate soufflé.

It's hard to find a living, breathing human anywhere in baseball who doesn't think ESPN's gift to managing is a sharp, articulate, engaging man with exceptional insights into his sport.

So how come, as Opening Day nears, no manager anywhere seems more uncomfortable about his job security than Buck Martinez?

	Buck Martinez went 80-82 in his first year as manager.

Oh, he isn't the only one. Martinez clearly shares the hot seat with Texas' Jerry Narron and Kansas City's Tony Muser. But anyone who has spent any time around the Toronto Blue Jays this spring is struck by how open Martinez is about the pressure he feels as new Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi pushes his team toward philosophical-transplant surgery.

In fact, Martinez often brings up his situation without anyone asking. In a chat the other day about his team's new direction -- as Ricciardi launches his retooling around two first-year players (Felipe Lopez and Eric Hinske) on the left side of the infield -- the manager was asked if he has to be more patient this year.

A manager with no worries about his future probably would have answered, "Absolutely." But a manager who's a year and a half removed from the ESPN broadcast booth, keenly aware of the strong opinions of his new GM, gave a very different answer.

"No, I think the opposite is true," Martinez said. "I have to be more demanding. I have to let them know what we expect, and our expectations are very high.

"You know, they talk to me about pressure, the pressure of having a new general manager," he went on. "I don't think it's any different than it's always been, because my responsibility as a major-league manager is to win baseball games. It doesn't make any difference who the cast of characters is. It's all about winning baseball. So in that regard, patience is something that I don't have to have."

It was an innocent question. On many levels, it wasn't a complicated answer. Except it was.

	Feelin' Blue
	Since winning back-to-back World Series in '92 and '93, the Blue Jays have featured stronger pitching than hitting, as seen by their AL rank in runs scored and ERA.
	Year	W-L	Pct.	Runs	ERA
	1994	55-60	.478	10th	7th
	1995	56-88	.389	13th	10th
	1996	74-88	.457	12th	4th
	1997	76-86	.469	14th	2nd
	1998	88-74	.543	8th	3rd
	1999	84-78	.519	5th	8th
	2000	83-79	.512	8th	10th
	2001	80-82	.494	9th	6th

There is going to be some measure of patience required this season by everyone associated with these Blue Jays. But that patience won't be applied to everybody. And it will be applied only in certain areas.

There may be patience when it comes to statistics, and even, to a point, to wins and losses. But you get the impression Ricciardi may not have infinite patience with a manager he didn't hire. Not when it comes to implementing "the Oakland A's philosophy" -- a philosophy based on selectivity at the plate and power on offense, live young arms on defense, and creativity in the front office.

When the GM is asked about his manager, he has no reservations about describing Martinez as "a good guy." But the GM also says this:

"He's a good guy, but Buck will be the first to admit he's had to go through an on-the-job learning experience. And this is a tough place to do that. We're playing with real bullets, and we're all held accountable for the direction the club goes and how things happen."

That isn't a specific way of saying, "My manager is under the microscope." But words like "accountable" are not to be confused with words like "confidence."

"I know what I want to do here as an organization," Ricciardi said. "And as the guy sitting in the dugout, I need Buck to be the one who's out front directing the way we want to do things. ...

"So he'll be evaluated, just as everybody will. It's not about wins and losses. If we win 75 games but our young kids get better and the mindset changes, that's OK. If we only win 75 games, that doesn't mean he's going to lose his job. But we need to make strides if we're going to go where we want to go. Let's face it. He's the conduit between me and the players. So he's accountable, just like we're all accountable."

But to his credit, Buck Martinez doesn't duck out of the way when he sees those purposes pitches heading his way. If people want to accuse him of not being ready to step out of the booth and into the dugout last year, his response is: They're right.

"As close as I was to the game for 14 years," he said of his broadcasting career, "I was really 14 years away from it. It's not a bad thing. I just had to be educated about the way things had changed in those 14 years."

He assumed too much, he said. He didn't teach enough, he said. He admits he didn't sufficiently establish what he wanted done, and he didn't take charge when things mushroomed in another direction.

So this season, he said, "I think I have to be what I had in my mind a year ago but I didn't get there: You have to be a teacher."

Martinez certainly knows enough baseball to teach it to anyone who wants to listen. But at the same time, he's also the one learning -- learning how to adjust to a demanding GM with very firm ideas on how he wants things done.

"Gord Ash and I have been associated with one another since 1982," Martinez said. "And he was the one who gave me the opportunity to manage without any experience. So absolutely, it has been an adjustment. But life's about adjustments, and J.P. came in from a place where he's been very successful. He's in his first role as a general manager. And we're learning as we go.

"But he's a baseball guy and he communicates. We talk a lot about his theories and his ideas. And you can't argue about his ideas because they're baseball ideas. So he's been very supportive of me, and I think our relationship gets better every day."

Buck Martinez is one of those people you root for in life, because no matter what his record might look like, he's a championship human being. But every time his GM uses words like "accountability," you think the manager may need all the rooters he can get.