Former Reds relief pitcher Jeff Brantley has lots of awards for throwing a baseball, so being honored as a broadcaster is extra special.
“Throwing a ball came naturally. This [broadcasting] is a little different category. This was a lot more difficult,” says Brantley, named Ohio Sportscaster of the Year for 2025 by the National Sports Media Association.
It’s the first radio award for Brantley, who pitched 14 season in the Major Leagues, including four for the Cincinnati Reds. He'll receive the award the last weekend in June during the NSMA’s 66th awards weekend and national convention in Greensboro, North Carolina.
A month earlier, Brantley will be inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame on May 9. Brantley was born in Florence, Alabama, and raised in Hoover, Alabama, where he lettered in three sports and quarterbacked his team to a state football championship.
“I guess I’ve got to talk to the Reds about some time off,” says Brantley by phone from his home in Mississippi.
"The Cowboy," as he's affectionately known, says he will be in Cincinnati Jan. 16-17 for Redsfest.
Recent past Ohio Sportscaster of the Year winners include WXIX-TV sports director Joe Danneman (2024); fellow Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Chris Welsh (2022); Bengals and UC announcer Dan Hoard (2014, 2017, 2019. 2020); and retired WLWT-TV sports director George Vogel (2015).
Brantley’s radio partner Marty Brennaman won the honor 16 times during his 45-year career as the voice of the Reds. Paul Keels — the Cincinnati native and Ohio State University announcer who did Reds TV games in 2010 — has been honored six times (2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2021, 2023). Other winners include Reds announcers Waite Hoyt (1963) and Al Michaels (1972) as well as the late WLW-AM Sports Talk host Bob Trumpy (1982, 1986).
Receiving the same award that Brennaman so often did is special to Brantley. He fell in love with baseball listening to Brennaman and partner Joe Nuxhall call Reds games on WLW-AM with his dad while growing up in Alabama.
“I listened to Marty and Joe as a kid. Baseball has always been my first love, from listening to baseball on the radio. It just happened that I played baseball first,” he says.
Brantley, 62, left Alabama after high school to pitch for Mississippi State University, where he was a two-time All-Southeastern Conference honoree and 1985 All-American. He helped lead the Bulldogs to the 1985 College World Series with an 18-2 record. Brantley is tied for the most career pitching wins in SEC history with 45 wins.
He was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 1985, and appeared in the 1989 World Series and 1990 All-Star game. He pitched for the Reds 1994-97, and won the Rolaids Relief Man Award for leading the National League with 44 saves for the Reds in 1996. He also pitched for the Cardinals (1998), Phillies (1999-2000) and Rangers (2001) then went to work for ESPN.
Brantley won a national Sports Emmy working for ESPN (2002-06) as a game analyst and studio analyst before joining Brennaman on the Reds broadcasting team in 2007.
The Alabama Sports Hall of Fame includes Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and “all the stars from the Alabama and Auburn football teams,” he says. The class of 2026 includes former Alabama (and Bengals) lineman Evan Mathis and defensive end John Copeland; quarterback Jason Campbell; and former Auburn and University of Cincinnati football coach Tommy Tuberville.
At the National Sports Media Association dinner in June, four people will be added to the NSMA Hall of Fame: CBS sportscaster James Brown and former ESPN.com sportswriter Adrian Wojnarowski, and posthumously, CBS sportscaster Greg Gumbel (CBS) and Minnesota Star Tribune sportswriter Sid Hartman. ESPN play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough will be honored as the 2025 National Sportscaster of the Year.
When I asked Brantley if his head might become too big to fit into the Great American Ball Park radio booth, he said with a laugh: “My head will be as big as Marty’s!”
