If you've listened to just one Cincinnati Reds game on the radio in the past thirty years, then you have experienced Marty Brennaman, one of the best, most honest broadcasters in baseball history.
Brennaman beat out 200 applicants to take over for the legendary Al Michaels in 1974 and be the main man on 700 WLW for Reds baseball.
Think about when Marty took over. Right in the middle of the thickest-shafted decade the Reds have ever had. Rose, Morgan, Bench, Perez and Sparky. And in his second and third seasons behind the mic, he witnessed the only back-to-back World Series titles in club history.
Although Brennaman had to wait until 1990 to taste his next squirt of champagne, the Reds had some pretty good teams between '76 and that season (they even had Hall-of-Fame pitcher Tom Seaver [Seaver went 14-2 in the strike-shortened 1981 slate] for 5+ seasons).
But then, the 2000s hit. The decade started off beautifully. The Reds acquired Ken Griffey Jr. and Brennaman was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
On the field, however, all was not well.
Marty slowly and humorously (from the listeners' perspective) began to lose his mind at the ineptitude he was witnessing. As I remember growing up, he wasn't as brutally honest about a bad play-- but apparently by about 2004 he had seen enough garbage to warrant just that. The Reds were irrelevant in the national conversation for most of the decade.
Since Day One, Brennaman's partner was "the old lefthander, rounding third and heading for home," Joe Nuxhall. Nuxy actually came up to the big leagues to pitch for the Reds when he was FIFTEEN back in 1944. It was during World War II, but still--that's incredible. Nuxhall only pitched in one game, but he did make it back to the Bigs eight years later. When he retired in 1966, he went straight into the broadcast booth.
Marty and Joe occupied the booth for Pete Rose's 4,192nd hit (passing Ty Cobb for 1st all-time), Hank Aaron's 714th HR (passing Babe Ruth for all-time home run king) and Tom Browning's perfect game (1988 against the Dodgers).
In 2007, Nuxhall passed, and the search was on for his replacement.
One of the candidates was former Reds closer Jeff Brantley. Number forty-five had led the NL in saves with 44 in 1996. Brantley, born and raised in Mississippi, was working for ESPN Baseball Tonight at the time. When the Reds offered him the job, the former Mississippi State Bulldog gladly accepted.
Brantley gives you that Southern drawl, using phrases like "Billy, Billy, Billy" during trying (or triumphant) moments on the field. He also gives you the pitcher's perspective, letting you know not only if the pitch was a ball or a strike but what and where the pitch was.
The two have become a great pair over the course of the last few seasons. And for the Reds fans, it's great that the team on the field is back to doing some of the things the Big Red Machine did when Marty took over.
For Marty, it's gotta be even sweeter. Especially considering the noticeable irritation (to put it lightly) for the eight or nine years he had to deal with up until master general manager Walt Jocketty arrived before the 2008 season and the ship was soonafter righted.
Marty and "The Cowboy" Jeff Brantley are on 700 WLW and mlb.com
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