Four batters. That's all it took for new Reds radio announcer Marty Brennaman to call baseball history in his debut 50 years ago on Opening Day in 1974.
Atlanta Braves outfielder Hank Aaron had waited all winter to tie Babe Ruth's home run record. Aaron did it the first time he swung the bat on April 4, 1974, after taking three balls and a strike from Reds starter Jack Billingham. Here's Brennaman's call:
”Outfield shaded around toward left for Aaron. Billingham with the pause. 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.”
Fifty years later, Brennaman marvels at his historic Major League Baseball debut.
"Amazingly I don't know anybody who broke in as historically as I did. It was an amazing way to break in with what turned out to be a pretty damn good call," Brennaman says.
At the commercial break after the top of the first, broadcast partner Joe Nuxhall asked Marty, "What the hell are you going to do for an encore?" Brennaman says he replied: "I don't know. That's a pretty good way to start."
That was the beginning of the Reds’ beloved "Marty & Joe on the radio" team, which would call games for 31 seasons and take Brennaman into Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000. He retired after 46 seasons in 2019, when the club celebrated its 150th anniversary.
Franchester Martin Brennaman, 31, was a minor league broadcaster for the New York Mets Tidewater Tides — and voice of the Virginia Squires in the old American Basketball Association — when hired by the Reds to replace Al Michaels, who left to do San Francisco Giants games after three seasons.
Since his hiring on Feb. 1, Brennaman knew the Reds were playing Aaron and the Braves on Opening Day. But that wasn't his concern.
"I was more awed by what Opening Day meant to this city. I was more awed by 55,000 people in the ball park than possibly calling a home run by Hank Aaron, if he hit one," he says.
Brennaman got a preview of how special Opening Day in Cincinnati was the previous day, when WSAI-AM's Jim Scott sent costumed Kings Island characters to his Anderson Township home to delight Brennaman's two children, Thom, 11, and Dawn, 10. The next day Scott sent a limousine to take Brennaman to Riverfront Stadium. (I had never heard about this until speaking to Brennaman yesterday. Another reason to love Good Old Jim Scott!)
"When the day arrived it hit me going to the ball park," Brennaman said. He had never broadcast a professional sporting event from such a large venue, in front of 55,000 people.
Brennaman has said many times he didn't seek the Reds radio job. He applied out of courtesy to his boss, Dave Rosenfield, the Tides general manager. Rosenfield had recommended Brennaman for the opening to Reds executive Dick Wagner at the 1973 Major League Baseball winter meetings. Wagner asked Rosenfield to have Brennaman send him a tape. He did. So did 220 others. Brennaman didn't give it much more thought. He loved doing Squires games featuring the acrobatic Julius "Dr. J" Erving.
"I didn't care about the Reds job, one way or the other," Brennaman said in my book, "Joe Nuxhall: The Old Lefthander & Me." "I loved basketball. Had I stayed with basketball, I would have gone to the NBA when the merger came (in 1976). I had no idea Al (Michaels) had left. I only did it out of courtesy to Dave. Had it not been for a chance meeting between Dick Wagner and Dave Rosenfield, I would have never come to Cincinnati because I really was enamored with pro basketball."
After he arrived in Cincinnati, did he think he'd stay here 50 years?
"I'd never given it any thought. I was still relatively shocked that I became a Major League Baseball announcer," Brennaman told me Wednesday. "I've always said: I'm not a particularly religious person but I do believe in fate — 110% if that's possible. I believe God puts you in positions."
And he stayed put after receiving tempting offers from the Yankees, Cubs, White Sox, Giants, Red Sox and Dodgers.
"The closest I ever came to leaving was Boston (in 1980). But at the end of day, I couldn’t go," he says.
"It wasn’t just about the money. It was about being accepted here by the fans. And not wanting to uproot my family. I've never regretted not taking any of those offers. My decision was the right one to stay here. From my perspective, the marriage was made in heaven. What a wonderful experience this has been for me."
After retiring, Brennaman and his wife, Amanda, continue to live primarily in Anderson Township, while spending time at a home in North Carolina. Brennaman started his career there after graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1965.
"This is home to me, even though we've got a wonderful place and good friends in Carolina," he says.
"It's important to me that I still be relevant in this town. That might seem a big egotistical, but that's how I feel," he says. Brennaman is still seen and heard on the airwaves promoting Kroger, Laura's Lean Beef and HELP plumbing, heating and cooling; and a weekday WLW-AM radio show with Tracy Jones. He's still the voice for the Greater Cincinnati International Airport luggage pick-up.
"I'm always honored when I'm asked to do things like that," he says.
Brennaman meant what he said at his retirement five years ago: If you see him around town, stop and chat with him.
"I learned a lot about fans from Joe (Nuxhall), and how to treat people. He always took time to chat with fans. It's repaying them for their loyalty by being nice to them," he says.
"I love this town. My decision to stay here evolved completely from that. I love it here."
This one belongs to us.
