Retirement of Marty Brennaman marks a huge loss in the baseball community

Cincinnati Reds' radio broadcaster Marty Brennaman is hanging it up after 46 years at the helm, and his presence in the media broadcast industry will be felt for many years to come. Congrats to Brennaman, who will be able to enjoy golf, high school athletics and warm weater as much as his heart desires.

Spending 46 years working at one place of employment is unheard of nowadays unless your job title is an MLB Radio Broadcaster. Vin Scully, Bob Uecker, and Marty Brennaman, among other storied radio commentators, have graced our ears with their beautiful voices for many, many years – unfortunately, of that grouping of three, only Uecker is slated to call games beyond 2019.

The older generation of listeners understand the importance of listening to baseball over the airwaves, and the likes of Scully, Uecker, and Brennaman have been able to last long enough in the industry to provide a bridge from the fireside radio generation to the television-based generation that unfortunately fails to understand the importance of radio.

The Cincinnati Reds’ fan base has been graced with Brennaman for 46 consecutive seasons, and Brennaman has been at the helm for some historical calls. Hank Aaron’s record-tying 714th home run, Tom Seaver’s 1978 no-hitter, Pete Rose’s all-time hits record, Tom Browning’s 1988 perfect game and Ken Griffey’s 500th and 600th career home runs in 2004 and 2008.

On top of all of those individual highlights, Brennaman has also been on the call for three World Series titles for the Redlegs, as their 1975, 1976 and 1990 titles earned the famous, ‘And this one belongs to the Reds’ moniker.

While not wanting a huge season-long goodbye tour, Brennaman’s retirement was made public by the team, which is exactly how it should be. One of the industry’s best that set the tone for broadcasters after him, Brennaman’s impact on what radio has done for the world of sports and just people, in general, has been nothing short of monumental.

Having replaced the noteworthy Al Michaels as the Reds broadcaster in 1974, the Reds have been absolutely blessed with great voices calling their games on the radio, and while Brennaman is hopefully not the last, his legacy will make him one of the last to do it as well as he did.

The storied playing history of the Reds has been very successful at times and other times it has been hard to watch – the great thing about it, though, is that the broadcast history of the Reds has pretty much always been great.

Congrats are in order for a hugely impactful and awesome career for Brennaman, and his bright, fantastic presence in the booth – it will be greatly missed.