Pete Rose's Death Hits Marty Brennaman Hard, His Son Tells OutKick
It was inevitable that the death of Pete Rose would be a gut punch to the people of Cincinnati and his old friend Marty Brennaman, the former longtime play-by-play radio voice of the Reds.
"He's really having a tough go of it," Thom Brennaman said of his father, who learned Monday night that the Hit King, Rose, had passed away at age 83.
Appearing on OutKick's "Don't @ Me" with Dan Dakich, Thom, who has had his own long-time broadcasting career, laid out just what Rose meant to his father.
"My dad's having a really hard time. He [was the play-by-play radio voice for] the team for 47 years. In fact, he hasn't gone on any shows like this or done any interviews since finding out the news last night. I talked to him, and he said, ‘You know, my two best friends in baseball have died in the last two years in Joe Morgan and Pete Rose,’" Thom told Dakich.
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"Those three guys were inseparable for years. And even now, talked all the time on the phone, and got together a number of times a year. Joe was here so frequently because he was still working with the Reds franchise and Pete's in town all the time."
For those who know Cincinnati, it didn't get much more Queen City than Marty and Pete. The two were a year apart in age and couldn't have been paired up at a better point in each other's lives. In 1974, Marty was hired as the team's radio voice. Rose was 33 and coming off a year where he won the 1973 MVP and had 230 hits while having a .338 batting average.
But he didn't have a World Series ring.
That would change in 1975 when Rose and the Big Red Machine finally got over the hump to win the World Series in seven games over the Red Sox and the rest is history. The two remained deeply connected until the end.
"Boy, he's going to be missed," Thom said of Rose. "You can like him and hate him. During the 1970s and 1980s, I think the only athlete that was more well-known around the world was Muhammad Ali. Everybody knew Pete Rose. He was the man.
"You can be a Cubs fan. You can be a Dodgers fan when they played in the same division back in those days when he played. And you could hate him. But, man, you'd take him on your team all day every day."