From a pile of 221 cassette tapes, the Cincinnati Reds picked a 31-year-old announcer from Virginia with no Major League Baseball experience to replace Al Michaels 50 years ago today.
"We think Marty Brennaman is one of the bright, young announcers in the country, and we feel sure that his voice and enthusiasm will quickly become popular with our great fans," announced Reds President Bob Howsam on Jan. 21, 1974.
And that's how "Marty & Joe on the radio" began 50 years ago. The beloved radio team provided Reds fans their soundtrack for the summer until Joe Nuxhall's death in 2007, with Brennaman continuing for a total of 46 yearsthrough the Reds' 150th anniversary season in 2019.
Reds fans remember Marty enthusiastically calling highlights of the 1975 and '76 World Championships. Pete Rose's record-breaking hit No. 4,192. Tom Browning's perfect game. The unfathomable 1990 wire-to-wire World Championship. The last game from Riverfront Stadium and the first at Great American Ball Park. Ken Griffey's milestone home runs. Jay Bruce's walk-off homer to win the Central Division. Pete shoving umpire Ron Pallone. Manager Lou Piniella throwing a base. Nuxy's tomatoes.
Brennaman was more than a soundtrack. His voice was like oxygen, or water, or electricity. Paired with the Old Lefthander Joe Nuxhall, and later The Cowboy Jeff Brantley, they were beloved. And you know what Marty says: Ain't love grand?
These two things are true about Marty Brennaman: He wasn't that interested in the Reds radio job in the winter of 1973 because he loved doing play-by-play from the Virginia Squires, the old American Basketball Association team starring Julius "Dr. J" Erving. And then Brennaman fell in love with Cincinnati and turned down jobs with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs and White Sox.
"I never expected to be broadcasting big-league baseball anyway," Brenneman said at his retirement press conference five years ago. "I was doing pro basketball in the old American Basketball Association and I loved it… This thing fell into my lap and fortunately, I got the job."
The Reds press release noted that Brennaman was a 1965 graduate of the University of North Carolina, where he received a B.A. in radio and TV. He had been in radio-TV for eight years, beginning at WGHP-TV in High Point, N.C.; then WSTP in Salisbury, N.C.; and WTAR in Norfolk, Va. He and his wife have a son, 10, and a daughter, 9.
"I feel very privileged to be the choice as the voice of the Reds. An announcer in the minor leagues dreams of this opportunity," Brennaman said in the release. "Major League Baseball is the best job in my business, and if somebody could hand-pick the situation he wanted, I can't think of a better one than in Cincinnati. It's a contending team every season and should be for years to come."
On his first day as a Reds employee — Feb. 1, 1974 — Brennaman met his future broadcast partner at a Dayton photography studio before a Reds Caravan appearance at Suttmiller's restaurant. The Reds needed publicity photos of Joe with the Reds' newest employee.
The first thing Marty said to Joe was: "I've got your baseball card." Nuxhall, 6-foot-3 and 234 pounds, had met his new Little Buddy. "That was the beginning of a very special and very unique relationship," said Brennaman, who is 5-foot-8. Until that day, Nuxhall had only heard Brennaman's voice on tape.
"I always remember Marty walking through the door," Nuxhall recalled with a laugh in 2002. "I heard this voice on tape, and I thought, 'This must be a big ol' boy!' Then he walks through the door!"
The new radio team got off to an auspicious start. After opening the Grapefruit League season against the Pirates in Bradenton, Marty and Joe broadcast the Reds' home opener from Al Lopez Field in Tampa, Fla. Marty opened the broadcast by saying: “Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to Reds baseball from Al Michaels Field in Tampa, Florida!”
At the commercial break, Joe said to Marty, "I can't believe it. We haven't got to the regular season yet, and I've already got material for the banquet circuit next fall!"
However, Marty didn't screw up on Opening Day at Riverfront Stadium. Brennaman began his career by calling Hank Aaron's historic 714th home run to tie Babe Ruth on the fourth batter into his MLB announcing career.
“Outfield shaded around toward left for Aaron … The 3-1 pitch. Swung on! Long shot into deep left field! Rose is back, and that ball is GONE! A home run!
“Henry Aaron has just tied Babe Ruth's home run record of 714 with a clout over the 375 marker in left. The Braves are piling out of the dugout. The crowd is on its feet en masse here at Riverfront Stadium as Hank Aaron has just hammered a 3-1 pitch from Jack Billingham over the left-field wall, and the Braves are out in front 3-0.”
Brennaman quickly established himself as the Voice of The Reds. Often his radio call was edited into the TV tape of a game for Reds' highlight reels, or this videotape from CBS' coverage of the last out of the 1990 World Series.
Brennaman credits Nuxhall with his easy transition from the minors to Major League Baseball, and filling the big shoes of popular Al Michaels. Entering the 1974 season, Nuxhall was working with his third broadcast partner after Jim McIntyre and Michaels, and his second straight minor-league play-by-play man.
"Of all the people who were influential in getting me off on the right foot when I came here in February of 1974, nobody had a greater impact on me in a positive sense than Joe did. He and Al Michaels were very close. He didn't have to go out of his way to make … the transition for me as easy as it turned out to be. And the only reason it was relatively easy was because of the way he dealt with me," Brennaman told me for my book, Joe Nuxhall: The Old Lefthander & Me.
When the Reds were at their worst — losing 101 games in 1982 after the Big Red Machine had been stripped of its parts — Marty and Joe were at their best. The 1982 season — not the 1970's Big Red Machine pennants — taught him to be a better baseball announcer, to keep fans engaged when the Reds stunk. Over the years, they entertained listeners talking about Elvis Presley, their golf games or professional wrestling.
They were so popular that the U.S. Postal Service knew that fan mail simply addressed to "Marty & Joe, Cincinnati, Ohio" should be delivered to the ball park.
"I was blown away by that. It made me realize that we had a special thing. If that isn't the biggest compliment of all time, I don't know what is. I mean, that's unbelievable," Brennaman said.
During rain delays, Marty and Joe took calls on the "Banana Phone," a plastic banana-shaped telephone they had in the booth. They talked to fans — and occasionally players from the clubhouse such as Adam Dunn, John Franco and Jose Rijo. Dunn tried to fool Marty as "Adam from Milwaukee."
When Brennaman accepted the National Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence in Cooperstown on July 23, 2000, the first person he thanked was Michaels: "There's one person I want to thank right out of the chute, and that's… Al Michaels. Had Al not left after the '73 season to go to the San Francisco Giants, I wouldn't be here today. So Al, where ever you are, thank you very much!"
Next he thanked Nuxhall — before Brennaman mentioned his family: "It's awfully nice to work with a living legend, and that's what I've done since 1974. Whatever success I've had, I willingly and gratefully share it with the Old Lefthander, Joe Nuxhall."
Brennaman felt so comfortable in Cincinnati that he turned down bigger salaries in larger cities.
"Every time I thought about making more money going someplace else, the quality of life meant more to me than anything," he said.
"It was a combination of factors: Working with Joe, liking it here, and the kind of acceptance I got from the people who listened to our broadcasts. I've had chances to go everywhere. And every time I had to pull the trigger, I couldn't. I never hesitated."
Cincinnati baseball fans certainly were happy that, 50 years ago, this one belonged to the Reds.
Ain't love grand?
Here's the text of the Reds press release 50 years ago:
FOR RELEASE 7 P.M. MONDAY, JAN. 21 (Tuesday AMs)
Brennaman named Reds announcer
CINCINNATI, Ohio – Marty Brennaman, voted the top sportscaster in Virginia for the last three years, is the new voice of the Cincinnati Reds.
The 31-year-old native of Virginia has been in baseball the past three seasons as the play-by-play announcer for the Tidewater, Va., team, a New York Mets farm in the International League. Marty is also in his fourth season as the radio voice of the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association.
"We think Marty Brennaman is one of the bright, young announcers in the country," said Bob Howsam, President of the Reds, in making the announcement, "and we feel sure that his voice and enthusiasm will quickly become popular with our great fans.
Brennaman is a 1965 graduate of the University of North Carolina, where he received a B.A. degree in Radio-TV. He has been in radio-TV for eight years, beginning at WGHP-TV in High Point, N.C.; then WSTP, Salisbury, N.C.; and WTAR in Norfolk, Va. He and his wife have a son, 10, and a daughter, 9. They plan to move to Cincinnati early next month.
"I feel very privileged to be choice as the voice of the Reds," said Brennaman. "An announcer in the minor leagues dreams of this opportunity."
"Major league baseball is the best job in my business, and if somebody could hand-pick the situation he wanted, I can't think of a better on than in Cincinnati. It's a contending team every season and should be for years to come."
Brennaman was selected from more than 200 applicants for the job, including many currently holding broadcasting jobs in major league baseball.
As a play-by-play man, Brennaman will be working with Joe Nuxhall, long-time color man on the Reds' vast six-state radio network.
