Earlier today shockwaves hit the Cincinnati Reds baseball world as Marty Brennaman announced that 2019 would be his final season calling games.
A message from Marty Brennaman: pic.twitter.com/c66DFmyjQS
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) January 16, 2019
The 76-year-old broadcaster has been the play-by-play voice for the Cincinnati Reds since the 1974 season. He took over for Al Michaels, joining the booth with Joe Nuxhall. The two worked together as a broadcast team for the next three decades before Nuxhall retired following the 2004 season.
Marty Brennaman has seen the best, and the worst of Cincinnati Reds baseball. He was there for the Big Red Machine’s two World Series in 1975 and 1976. He was there for the 1990 World Series sweep over the heavily favored Oakland Athletics. But he was also there for the 1982 Reds, and the entirety of “the lost decade”. He was around for the tough stretch that the team has gone through over the last several years.
Basically, Marty has seen just about everything. In his first year with the Reds he called Hank Aaron’s record tying 714th home run. He called a perfect game by Tom Browning. He got to call, unfortunately, a no-hitter in the playoffs by Roy Halladay. Brennaman was on the mic to call Ken Griffey Jr’s 500th home run. He was also on the mic to call his 600th home run. And perhaps my favorite, he was on the receiving end of a Banana Phone call from Adam Dunn, who asked if Scott Hatteberg was a good player, and if Marty had his shirt on.
In 1999 the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame inducted Marty Brennaman. A year later he won the Ford C. Frick Award, given out by the National Baseball Hall of Fame for “major contributions to the game of baseball”. In 2005 he was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.
In what is currently an exclusive interview, Marty Brennaman spoke with the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Paul Daugherty about his retirement. Go read the entire thing. There’s a lot of good stuff in there, but this part seemed important to me, so I’m going to post it here:
I wanted to retire by saying after my last broadcast, this is it for me, then walk away. The Reds felt that would be a disservice to the fans and the ballclub. So I agreed to do it this way. I will be very grateful. And very uncomfortable.
Once I leave the booth, I’ll never broadcast another baseball game in this town. It’s not fair to the other guys in the booth. I will be involved in other areas.
Marty Brennaman has talked about this in the past – that he wanted to announce his retirement after he was done. The Reds seemed to talk him into not doing it that way. And I think that’s for the best. There are a lot of people who would have loved to have been able to make that final listen, who otherwise wouldn’t have had any idea to do so. Good thinking by the Reds. And good job to agree to it by Marty Brennaman. Hopefully the 2019 season will be one where we have a lot of those great calls by one of the best broadcasters that have been in the game of baseball. They’ve been tough to come by lately, but when they do, he’s still up there with the absolute best of them.
And this one belongs to the Reds.
Marty is the voice of Reds baseball, sure he’s had bad moments, but we’ve been lucky to have him all these years. I was born in 1977 and he’s been the voice of the reds my entire life, a reds win is not going to be the same without …and this one belongs to the reds. He will be missed
As someone who remember Waite Hoyt and Jim McIntire and Claude Sullivan on radio and Ed Kennedy and Frank McCormick on TV, the loss of Marty is inestimable. I think the young fans think of him as an old “get off my lawn” crank, but I remember when he seamlessly took over for Al Michaels who left for the Giants, and was rewarded with the glory days of the Big Red Machine! And this one belongs to Marty!!
Yep and good luck to him.Losing took its toll on him and all of us.Hard to have been there when you always win and then just stink for so many years
Yeah, I remember Waite Hoyt, and Jim McIntyre. Where have all the years gone?
And Joe Nuxhall
“This is the old lefthander, rounding third and heading for home. Goodnight, everyone.”
Well I will subscribe to the radio broadcast for sure then so I can listen to all the games and enjoy his last year announcing. Plus the Reds actually look legitimate this year. Tough division but they have a fighting chance assuming the add one more key player… or really instead of upgrading the rotation I think they should get one more dynamite bullpen arm to make that unit as tough and deep as possible.
I was 6 when the Reds won it in ’74. My whole life Marty has been there. Glad we’ll get another season. I too will listen more and agree that he needs a ring as a farewell gift.
The Reds should look to hire Jim Brockmire.
Heard Thin Brennaman won’t replace him
Marty and Joe were a part of my youth growing up in the 1970’s during the era of the Big Red Machine. It’s hard to express what it was like growing up during those great years following one of the greatest teams ever. Marty and Joe were a big part of that experience. I had a chance to meet Marty a few years ago and I personally thanked him for those wonderful memories. He was and is a legend. Thank you Marty!
It’s funny that I thought about Marty and Joe doing the “Reds Caravan” before it became a caravan. He and Joe would come down to Charleston and do a presentation/q&a in an upstairs classroom at the University of Charleston in front of about 30 folks. I remember asking Marty, this most have been around ’80, if he thought the Reds were serious about signing Kent Tekulve. He emphatically dismissed the idea but was gracious throughout the meeting. They showed some Reds’ highlights on reel-to-reel no less! Gonna miss the old boy. The Reds did end up signing Tekulve, lol.
No doubt about that. I think he became a little more harsh and negative about it after Joe passed.
Growing up with the Reds, one of my memories as a kid was hearing the next door neighbor’s radio on during the summer with Waite Hoyt doing the game. I would be in bed with the window open, and his dining room was just about 10 feet away, and the radio would be on, and he would be in his rocking chair, listening to the game.
The first of the Great Years, 1970, and it was Jim and Joe on the radio! Jim McIntyre and Joe Nuxhall. What a fun year that was!
Jim was gone in 1971, but Al Michaels joined the team. Joe had a lot of fun with Al, and really made fun of him after the last playoff game of 1972, when Johnny Bench hit that dramatic tying home run off Dave Giusti, and then Foster scored the winning run on a wild pitch to Hal McRae. Joe laughed and said Al was all tangled up in the mike wire at the end of the game.
Marty had been on with Joe for what seemed forever, but then, all good things come to an end, and Joe retired and now has passed with cancer.
I’ll miss Marty too, as he and “Cowboy” actually are pretty entertaining, even though the team has stunk on ice for the last four years. And yes, it was wearing on Marty to endure all the losing.
Good luck Marty. Vaya con Dios.
This is bitter sweet: it’s sweet in that I won’t have to listen to him soon. Bitter in that I will have to for one more year. Maybe they will be allowed to hire someone with some actual knowledge of baseball, and maybe maybe they can now get rid of Thom! We only can dream.
That’s my main takeway. Hopefully, once this season is over and Marty is gone, we will get the fake, but obligatory Thom resignation about wanting to spend more time with family. If Thom isn’t gone next year, all I can is, “you’ve gotta be kidding.”
The real shame here is that the younger guys don’t know the good Marty. In the 70’s he became the voice of the Reds, and before the Reds were on TV every night, it was Marty and Joe that brought the Reds into our homes. And we all looked forward to Joe’s sign off “the old left-hander rounding third and heading for home!” and Marty’s iconic “And this one belongs to the Reds.” I agree with the the comment above that something happened to Marty after Joe left, perhaps he was a crotchety old cynic all along and Joe kept him balanced. Ot maybe Marty just went too long and time passed him by. I don’t really know, I haven’t liked listening to his rants for a long time, but I remember a time when Marty was one of the best baseball announcers around and I couldn’t wait to hear him on Reds Radio
I hear this news with sadness – it’s the end of an era, with gratitude – Marty and Joe were the voice of my favorite team literally for decades, and they were for many years a delight, with regret – that Marty’s crankiness has damaged his reputation among current Reds fans, and with hope – that maybe there’s a little playoff miracle ahead for Marty’s last season. I’ll definitely listen to more games this year (thank you interwebs).
And I’ll remember some amazing nights with Marty and Joe. The night Tom Browning threw his perfect game I was living in Boston and the only way you could here the games was on WLW, which didn’t come in well until about 9 PM when the signal could finally bounce all the way to the east coast. But a rain delay had pushed the start against the Dodgers just late enough, and then magic happened. I was glued to the radio and Marty and Joe’s call. A perfect night in more ways than one. Thank you Marty – And this one belongs to the Reds!
I’ve listened to Thrall when he was broadcasting the Pensacola games. He’s good.
Marty Brennaman, one of the very best at describing the great game of baseball. Enjoy your life.
Ditto all the positive praises! Thank ya Marty!! Hopefully the next guy will continue the tradition of ripping Cubs fans.
I also had one of those little radios and used to go under covers and listen to keep Dad from hearing me.Of course he heard me and after awhile he would tell me to turn it off and go to sleep.Great memories.