Blogger on Marty's game-calling: That poor (expletive) has simply lost it

[Big Klu]

Why do you expect us to "white wash" Marty? He's a horrible announcer. He's the Eric Milton of radio broadcasting.. Used to be decent, but now is simply horrible.

This would be an opinion. A lot of people (myself included) think he does a fine job.

I don't know, sea Ray. I sometimes feel that way, and I'm glad someone else does too. I listen to George Grande's smiling voice putting a good spin on everything and want to vommit. I've noticed that Chris has taken the opposite view lately. Yesterday, Grande kept on in his motor mouth way talking about the greatness of Freel, who had just dove for a ball and it hit him in the arm and allowed the runner to take an extra base, and Welsh says, yeah he hustleds too much a lot of the time, or something like that.

It's very difficult to look at this mess, which has been going on for nearly 8 years and be all sunny about it.

I agree with WVRed. I feel the same way that he does when watching what's going on, and I'm glad that somebody who has a voice is able to speak about it.

The only person who seems to have any control over Marty's negativity is Tom, who tries to move him away from being such a downer. Poor Jeff Brantley just doesn't have the chops to make up for Marty's moodiness. It really is difficult to listen to.

I think that Chris Welsh and Jeff Brantley should switch positions. In my opinion, Brantley is much more knowledgable and informative on TV than he is on the radio--and I think Welsh could be Marty's counterpoint (like Joe used to be) much better than Brantley.

[RedsFan75]

The only person who seems to have any control over Marty's negativity is Tom, who tries to move him away from being such a downer. Poor Jeff Brantley just doesn't have the chops to make up for Marty's moodiness. It really is difficult to listen to.

Wonder if we put Marty (Negative) and George ( Mr. Positive) in the booth together if we'd get an implosion... (Kinda like the Star Trek Matter/Anti-Matter thought.)

It might be interesting to hear Marty and George together on a broadcast!?!

[Always Red]

The Cubs sucked back in the 80s when I started watching them on WGN, but I never got tired of listening to Jack Brickhouse and Harry Caray.

The White Sox sucked back in the mid-80's when I was lucky enough to live in Chicago. No way could I root for the blankin "Cubbies" so I became a White Sox fan by default. I loved listening to Don Drysdale and Ken "The Hawk" Harrelson doing White Sox games- they were hilarious, and those guys had a ball. Didn't seem to matter what the Sox did on the field, those guys just loved being there. They could be critical, but they always did it with a keen sense of humor, IIRC.

[REDREAD]

Spot on.

Would everyone please remind me why the game threads don't currently exist?

Because there's a small minority that can't refrain from making personal attacks. This small minority forces the game thread to be moderated every night which is a lot of work.

Overall, the game thread content is much higher quality than Marty.

[AtomicDumpling]

I became a Reds fan back in the early 80's when the Reds were not very good. I enjoyed listening to Marty and Joe. It was relaxing and made me feel good. If the Reds won it was great, if they lost it was still good.

I imagine if I was 13 years old right now I would be turned off by listening to Marty and the crew. It is just not any fun. His job is to make people want to listen and enjoy it. I think Marty is doing a lot of harm to the Reds future by failing to entertain the fans. If they don't listen they are less likely to become/stay diehard Reds fans. They are less likely to attend the games. Then the Reds make less money, have less money to spend on players and are less likely to ever be a good team again.

The announcing crew has a large impact on the fan base and hence the team itself. The Reds cannot afford to have a grumpy, nasty hater in the broadcast booth.

[CrackerJack]

Marty should've left his high standards back in the pre-free agency era, roughly 17 years ago, where they've since been put to rest when it comes to Cincinnati professional sports.

[cincrazy]

Because there's a small minority that can't refrain from making personal attacks. This small minority forces the game thread to be moderated every night which is a lot of work.

Overall, the game thread content is much higher quality than Marty.

I disgaree with that statement my friend. I quit reading the game threads period because they often times turned into all out personal attacks. Maybe it was only 2 or 3 people every night, but it seemed to me to be 2 or 3 DIFFERENT people every night. Emotions run high, people get upset with losing, it happens to Marty, it happens to us.

[gonelong]

I'm just going to back out of this now, however, as I know most of RZ is anti-Marty.

To quote you, "What a complete load of horsecrap."

Redszone is in no way "anti-Marty" as a group. It's probably about 85% or greater "pro-Marty". Besides, I am not "anti-Marty", I just don't enjoy listening to him call the game any more. Live and let live I say.

It's as predictable as the tide and taxes here in the land of "higher level" discussion.

Its up to all of us to raise the level of discussion, **each** time we post.

GL

[Unassisted]

We've established that this prominent blogger dude has no reason to slag Marty, and that his impression was formed based solely on his work.

The thing I wonder now is what Walt Jocketty, who had little reason to listen to Reds radio broadcasts before this season, must think about his club having a senior PBP announcer in the booth who so thoroughly trashes the product on the field. Walt is a guy who has the owner's ear. He's a guy whose opinion is respected by the owner. If Castellini points to home attendance as a performance indicator for GMs, Walt would be perfectly within his rights to point to the team's senior broadcast voice as a big factor in why fans stay home. Walt could throw Marty under the bus.

We know now that personnel decisions are sometimes made by Mr. Castellini on a knee-jerk, even emotional basis. Is it unreasonable to expect that Marty could show up for work one day and find that he is out of a job because he was made a scapegoat for flagging attendance?

[GAC]

There's a difference between calling a game on national radio and posting on a message board. Just like people tend to be on their best behavior on a first date vs how they act with their drinking buddies.

Why is there a difference? The play of this team is horrendous whether you're watching it in the booth or on a message board. But because he's in that booth he is somehow suppose to overlook or "soft soap" what he is observing, and what an overwhelming majority of the fans have been saying for years?

That would, IMHO, make him look like a bigger fool. Then you'd have the fans leveling accusations at him like.... "Is this guy watching the same team we are?" or "He's just towing the company line."

The guy loves this team and organization. Yes, he has an ego. Most in those booths and within the media for any length of time do. That doesn't bother me at all.

But I can't believe that many are criticizing a guy for not only telling it like it is; but saying those things that a majority of us agree with? I could care less because it's being done publically.

Why is it any different from behind that mike, or whether it's an article in the Enquirer, Post, or whatever, read daily by tens of thousands that says the same thing?

Diplomacy? Professionalism? OK. I agree that he probably could find a more professional way to express the same disgust we all have towards this team's current play and the fact it's pretty bad. But a majority of the times he has been very critical of this team he has done so AFTER he has put forth some number/stats to support that position. Whether it's how our 3-4-5 guys are doing with RISP, or individual performances (Arroyo, Dunn), whatever.

Give'em hell Harry!

He's one of the few people with the ablity to suck all the fun out of baseball games. The game threads are great in comparison.. back when we had them, it was nice to read them during the game as it helped counteract Marty...

counteract Marty?

Respectfully, I can't believe what I am reading. RR you have been one of the most vocal and critical opponents of this FO and team since this forum began. You've rarely let up over the years. And you have a right to do so, and some of the stuff you've stated I actually have agreed with. The game threads had evolved into 90 pages of griping, whining, and complaining about this team's construction and play day in and day out. They had become laughable.

But because Marty is on the radio he somehow shouldn't be doing it. I disagree.

[gm]

We've established that this prominent blogger dude has no reason to slag Marty, and that his impression was formed based solely on his work.

The thing I wonder now is what Walt Jocketty, who had little reason to listen to Reds radio broadcasts before this season, must think about his club having a senior PBP announcer in the booth who so thoroughly trashes the product on the field. Walt is a guy who has the owner's ear. He's a guy whose opinion is respected by the owner. If Castellini points to home attendance as a performance indicator for GMs, Walt would be perfectly within his rights to point to the team's senior broadcast voice as a big factor in why fans stay home. Walt could throw Marty under the bus.

We know now that personnel decisions are sometimes made by Mr. Castellini on a knee-jerk, even emotional basis. Is it unreasonable to expect that Marty could show up for work one day and find that he is out of a job because he was made a scapegoat for flagging attendance?

Can you imagine the backlash in Redsland if Marty were to be canned for negativity? I can't, because I'm not from the area. But I would think that Bob and Walt wouldn't be looking for another way to piss off their dwindling fan base. How about fixing the product on the field before Marty retires? Then maybe he'll give the team some grudging respect

Now, if the team were to make the playoffs and Marty was still in "get off my lawn" mode, I would hope he'd get the axe like that loudmouth character from "Angels in the OF"

[GAC]

Can you imagine the backlash in Redsland if Marty were to be canned for negativity? I can't, because I'm not from the area. But I would think that Bob and Walt wouldn't be looking for another way to piss off their dwindling fan base. How about fixing the product on the field before Marty retires? Then maybe he'll give the team some grudging respect

I've listened to Marty many a time give proper due when he sees it. I agree that the guy does seem to carry personal grudges against various players (Dunn), and that his philosophy at times on how the game is to be played is open for question and criticism. The guy is human.

Marty is like the rest of us in the sense he doesn't like what has happened to this organization/team over the last decade, wants to see the right changes made.

Yes, he can be blunt and very open in his criticism; but.... he's on our side IMO.

Put a product on the field that he can compliment and not have room to be so openly critical of.

Until they do, I like his candor, regardless of how brutal some perceive it to be.

[Yachtzee]

I disagree. He's paid to call the game as he sees it, in his own way. He wouldn't have been here this long and especially up for HOF consideration if he just did "play by play". If he sees it one way and someone else thinks that's whining or hyperbole in any way, so be it. It's fine to have an opinion of him and/or his style, but let's be honest here, he's talking about the game just like we do (well, did) here at Redszone.

It's virtually the same thing.

He gets paid to tell us what's going on in the game. Even if he refrained from the negative comments, he still has a problem with telling us what is going on on the field. He treats it as if it's "The Marty Brenneman Show, featuring Reds Baseball" as opposed to "Reds Baseball, with Marty Brenneman calling the play." In addition to his rants at poor play, he'll spend any number of innings talking about everything under the sun but baseball. The worst are the lame inside jokes he has with his off-the-air cronies and the fake news stories he likes to make up to poke fun at the other broadcasters. If he wants to talk about that stuff between batters, fine. But while a batter is up, please just tell us what is going on on the field. Some of us like to hear that.

I stopped listening to Marty not just because of the negativity. I stopped because it was more of a Marty show than a Reds Baseball game. I can get more out of the game following it online.

[lollipopcurve]

He's a magnet for misery.

Jocketty talked about the importance of being surrounded by positive people. I hope that somehow, some way, that puts Franchester on notice.

[MWM]

The thing is the people who can't stand to listen to Marty anymore (I'm one) aren't asking for anything unreasonable. We don't want Marty to be someone else (i.e. people who complain because Dunn isn't Pujols). All we want is the Marty we got accustomed to hearing in his first 20 years. That's it. We don't want anything more than that. Just be the guy he was for the majority of his career. He was as good as just about anyone (sorry, he's no Scully or Harwell). That's not too much to ask. It's not like it's just blind hatred. I used to love Marty and listened to him almost every night. I miss that guy and wish he'd come back. Because the guy in the booth right now is too insufferable for me to listen to.