The Post’s Where Are They Now series catches up with the Cincinnati Reds broadcaster for a look back at his career as well as his time in Athens.
For general manager Walt Jocketty, relief pitcher Sam LeCure, and three of the other four Reds making the trek to Athens to start off the southern leg of the Reds Caravan, the trip was simply that: the first city the group would hit on the club’s annual PR run.
For Thom Brennaman, though, the trip to Athens was a trip home.
Of all the graduates of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, Brennaman is one of the biggest broadcasting standouts, graduating in 1986. In nearly 30 years of broadcasting experience, Brennaman has become one of the most easily recognizable voices in football and baseball. And after calling Bowl Championship Series National Championship games, Cotton Bowls and seasons of Major League Baseball, Brennaman still thinks back on Athens and remembers it as the place where it all started.
“I really enjoy coming back and look forward to every chance I have to be back,” Brennaman said. “I am forever grateful to (my professors) for challenging you to start thinking of things in a little bit different way than you had your whole life.”
At OU, Brennaman was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity — where he served as president — while working at two radio stations, WATH and WXT2, where he honed his craft as a broadcaster.
He is also the son of Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman, who will begin his 51st season of broadcasting this year. According to the Reds’ official website, the two men are the “only father/son duo to call a perfect game and winning World Series for their home teams and work a 20-strikeout game.”
“He just told me to be myself,” Thom said. “He told me to be who you are, say what you think and to tell people what’s really going on.”
That advice, however, is something that Thom is cautious about handing out to up-and-coming broadcasters of today’s world.
“So many teams are looking to hire some guy just to be a glorified cheerleader,” Brennaman said. “When it comes to a player who messes a play up, they don’t want you talking about it. My dad’s always been a guy who tells it like it is and not too many teams are willing to hire that kind of guy anymore.”
Brennaman began his career by spending two years alongside Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench in Cincinnati, before being hired by the Chicago Cubs, where he stayed for six seasons. He then left Chicago to spend nine years announcing Arizona Diamondbacks games, before returning home to Cincinnati, where he will begin his ninth season in 2015.
Despite having such a solid foot in the door with his father working in the business, Brennaman said he had the same doubts any young professional has when beginning a new career.
“You wonder if you’re really ready for it,” Brennaman said. “You may think you’re ready and feel confident, but when you walk into a city that’s totally foreign to you, where you have no roots and nobody cares what your last name is, I had to go out and earn my way and hope that after a couple years, people think of me and say ‘Eh, this guy’s not bad.’”
Though Brennaman has become a prominent figure with the Reds, his connection with Cincinnati runs beyond baseball. A graduate of Anderson High School, he is a board member of SPCA Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, along with being a member of the Armstrong United Methodist Church.
“You are what you are in this world and I’m a Cincinnati and Ohio guy,” he said. “There’s no greater proponent or fan of this state than me, so if there’s anything I can do, whether it’s coaching or volunteering or speaking, that makes any town better for 5 minutes, then sign me up.”
What makes Brennaman stand out as a broadcaster isn’t just his uniquely candid style, but also his versatility in the booth. In early fall months, it isn’t uncommon for Brennaman to jump from a week of announcing Reds games to joining Super Bowl-winning coach Brian Billick in the booth for an NFL telecast.
In nearly 30 years of broadcasting, Brennaman says that calling the Diamondbacks’ World Series against the Yankees in 2001 just months after 9/11 stands out as a favorite moment in his career. Brennaman also believes it was “one of the greatest World Series ever played.”
In lieu of the advice his father gave him, Brennaman offers some simple advice of his own to young journalists.
“They have to get reps,” Brennaman said. “You want to be going out and getting better the next time than you were you your last time. The only way you get better at anything in this world is by going out and doing it.”
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