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Dale Petroskey, president of the Hall of Fame, was set to announce the year 2000 recipient of the prestigious Ford C. Frick Award, given annually to a broadcaster in major league baseball that has provided major contributions to the game.
Legendary broadcasters such as Mel Allen, Ernie Harwell, Vin Scully, Harry Caray and Jack Buck had already won the award, and Brennaman was in a position to join elite company.
Brennaman himself knows how meaningful the award has become. "For someone in my profession that is broadcasting big league baseball, there is no higher honor than winning the Frick Award," he said.
And Brennaman knew winning was a real possibility, especially considering how close he had come the year prior.
"I found out the year before I had missed out by one vote of getting it," Brennaman said as he recalled being inched out by the late Arch McDonald. "I really had rather I'd not known that, because then as the announcement came closer as far as 2000 was concerned, you naturally think about the possibility."
So as Butcher received Brennaman's assurance that day, it seemed only fitting that once that next morning came around, the phone at the Brennaman household would be the one receiving the call.
"I'll never forget, the phone rang just a minute or so after 11, and I picked it up and said 'Hello?'," Brennaman said. "And the voice on the other end said 'Marty, this is Dale Petroskey, the president of the Baseball Hall of Fame' and I don't even remember what he said after that, my whole career flashed in front of me. I knew he didn't call me to ask me how I was doing."
Thirty-four-plus seasons of broadcasting Cincinnati Reds baseball has certainly been quite an extraordinary accomplishment, but the addition of a Hall of Fame ring gave his career extra meaning, one that might have seemed far-fetched back in 1973.
Brennaman was 31 years old and broadcasting games for the Virginia Squires of the, then, American Basketball Association. He also called games for the International League's Tidewater Tides, an affiliate of the New York Mets, during the summer.
Late that year, Tidewater general manager Dave Rosenfield would happen upon Reds' assistant Genera Manager Dick Wagner at baseball's winter meetings and learned the Reds were looking for a replacement for Al Michaels, who left to take a position with the San Francisco Giants.
Rosenfield recommended the talented Brennaman. After he was selected as one of three finalists from a list of 221, the 1965 North Carolina graduate was named Michaels' successor.
"I was the only minor league announcer when they got the list down to three, the other two were already established big league broadcasters, who I'm sure wanted more money than I was willing to take the job for," Brennaman said. "I jokingly say that's the reason why I got the job, because I was willing to work for less money."
Brennaman's style would soon become well-known to Reds fans and his reputation would be built upon outspoken honesty and opinion, with criticisms sprinkled in whenever he felt necessary.
That style was uniquely complemented by broadcast partner and former Reds pitcher, the late Joe Nuxhall, who made his major league debut as a pitcher on June 10, 1944, at the age of 15 years, 10 months and 11 days old. Nuxhall would often share experiences from his playing days in the booth.
The two became best friends.
"It was a dream working with him; he and I were together for 31 years as a team…I don't think anybody went 31 years of doing every game like Joe and I did," Brennaman said. "It was just an incredible experience to be able to work with him."
"The broadcast team was phenomenal," said Thom Brennaman, Brennaman's son. "You followed them from the time you were a kid. Outside of Jack Buck and Mike Shannon, I'm not sure anyone can say they've listened to the same group for that many years."
Marty's famous phrase "And this one belongs to the Reds!" became a mainstay after every Reds victory and still is today. Nuxhall's famous signoff - "This is the old lefthander, rounding third and heading for home" - was eventually displayed on the outside of the Reds' Great American Ball Park.
Three World Series rings, a bevy of historic play-by-play calls and now a place in Cooperstown at the age of 57, becoming the second youngest broadcaster to ever receive the Frick award, Brennaman's position amongst the greatest of all-time had officially been solidified.
In an era where change is accepted as the norm, Brennaman has deferred, spending every season of his major league broadcasting career in the "Queen City."
"I've been blessed in a number of areas. One, to have gotten to the big leagues, and secondly, to have gotten it where I got it and that's here," Brennaman said. "You can count on one hand the number of guys who have reached 34-plus years of broadcasting major league baseball and have only been employed by one ball club and that's kind of special to me."
As for the legacy that Marty Brennaman will leave behind, Jack Buck, the late broadcaster for the St. Louis Cardinals let his colleague in on that secret years ago following the announcement of the 2000 Frick Award.
"Jack Buck called me and said 'do you realize that this is going to be a bigger thing for your children and their children and their children?'" Brennaman said. "I said 'what do you mean?' and he said 'because long after you're gone, everytime someone brings your name up in the baseball context, it's going to be Hall of Famer Marty Brennaman, and that's going to be bigger for your kids, their kids and their kids than it will ever be for you' and Jack was right."
That kind of respect is something that Brennaman doesn't take for granted.
"The thing that has really hit home to me more than anything else are young people getting into my profession and will call or send a note or e-mail and say 'you're the reason why I got into this profession'," Brennaman said. "That means an awful lot to me."
Keith Britton can be reached at britton.71@osu.edu.
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