Marty Brennaman receives behind-the-scenes look at upcoming statue

With Reds Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman’s statue commemoration slated for September 6, the team’s longtime voice got a special preview of his likeness in bronze along with a peek at the process behind its creation.

Brennaman will be the first broadcaster to be honored by the Reds with a bronze statue, joining eight Reds players outside of Great American Ball Park. The legendary commentator spent 46 years broadcasting for the Reds, which included the 1975, 1976 and 1990 World Series championship seasons.

The exclusive look, courtesy of John Cline and his crew at Casting Arts and Technology, allowed Brennaman to get a glimpse of the statue’s head, torso and other sections. The preview was just the most recent aspect of the statue process for Brennaman, as he’d been working with sculptor Tom Tsuchiya for several months. Brennaman’s experience of seeing the bronze getting poured, seeing the statue’s head and being able to tour the foundry wasn’t something you get to do every day.

“For want of a better word, it’s unique,” Brennaman said. “How many people get a chance to look at their own head in bronze? What this has done is it has reaffirmed my high regard for Tom Tsuchiya and for John Cline and the fact that most of these guys are perfectionists. They want to get it, they want to do it, but they want to do it right and they've done it right.”

Initially hesitant to get any early looks with concern of spoiling the surprise at the unveiling, Brennaman gave in to the idea of seeing it in parts with some encouragement from his wife, Amanda. According to him, being able to view the statue in pieces has “heightened the anticipation” for the reveal.

Brennaman found out he’d be cast in bronze back in March. Executive Director of the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum Rick Walls invited Brennaman and Amanda to Great American Ball Park for what he thought was a meeting and an interview about the Opening Day tradition in Cincinnati.

After a back-and-forth about Opening Day, Walls asked a question about the broadcaster’s involvement in emceeing dedication ceremonies for many of the statues stationed around them outside of Great American Ball Park.

Encore Technologies CEO John Burns, a close friend of Brennaman and whose company is a leading supporter of the statue project, then asked where Marty’s statue was. After Brennaman gave a tongue-in-cheek response -- “they said it’s in the mail."

Walls and Burns broke the news that, in the very spot they were standing, he’d be joining the existing Reds legends with his own statue in September.

“You have got to be kidding,” Brennaman responded. “Are you serious? I don’t know what to say. I’ve dreamed about this, I thought about it. I never thought it was going to happen. I’m speechless. This is one of the more special things that has ever happened to me.”

For Walls, entering Brennaman into bronze immortalization goes much further than his illustrious career behind the Reds’ microphone.

“The beauty of it is this is not just about him calling games,” Walls said. “This is about everything he has meant to the Reds Community Fund, the Reds Hall of Fame, Reds fans and the Reds brand anywhere and everywhere. I find it hard to imagine somebody else having much more of an impact over that long of a time. Being like Pete Rose, like Johnny Bench. Those guys are synonymous with Cincinnati. When you see them, you think Cincinnati Reds. Marty? Reds broadcaster. They all know him. To be able to recognize that somebody like that is synonymous and has risen to that level [makes for] an easy decision.”

With Brennaman becoming the first Reds broadcaster to receive a statue, he also joins a slim list of MLB commentators like Bob Uecker, Harry Caray and Ernie Harwell, among a handful of others. As Walls puts it, “Marty is an anomaly.”

The process of making the statue begins with Tsuchiya, whose work includes all eight of the current statues around Great American Ball Park. It starts with concept brainstorming, which turns into digital scans, clay sculpting with Brennaman in the studio and then having molds created from the clay statue.

Tsuchiya’s portfolio of statues contains the likes of Rose, Bench, Joe Morgan and other iconic players, but this was the first broadcaster he’s sculpted. The difference in profession created new challenges to overcome.

“When it comes to baseball figures, [you can] depict them in a baseball pose,” Tsuchiya said. “This one is unique because I'm dealing with someone where they're not necessarily in an action pose. When Marty announced, he wasn't someone who was like Harry Caray, who would've been theatrical in his body language. Marty said he was never like that. He just sits rather stoically looking at the desk. His facial expressions here would be of joy and enthusiasm, but he wouldn't necessarily show a lot of movement in his body language. It was a challenge to make it look alive looking and dynamic.”

Tsuchiya’s precision was noted by Brennaman, mentioning that the sculptor would take measurements down to the distance between his eyes. Tsuchiya, a Cincinnati native and lifelong Reds fan, takes a lot of pride in his work, believing this to be “special,” as he “helps create something that is enjoyed by my family, friends and other members of the community.”

The work then continues by replicating the statue in wax that holds plumbing for the stability of the sculpture and then cut into parts. The wax sections are reinforced with ceramic and fired in a kiln. The ceramic mold is then filled with some toasty, 2,050-degree Fahrenheit molten bronze before being left to cool.

Cline doesn’t get a lot of face time with the subjects of their builds. The experience of having Brennaman witness part of the process was memorable.

“It's fun to have the actual subject here. It's kind of interesting and enjoyable when people have an interest in that whole process,” Cline said. “Most of the time people have no idea how this stuff is done. Having Marty here has been fun. You can kind of see that he's taken an interest in it. … It's exciting because having the opportunity to know and meet a subject who is being commemorated is kind of rare.”

After the bronze pieces are knocked out, the plumbing is removed, the pieces get cleaned up, welded and dressed, and the metal gets colored with heat. From there, final touches are made before its transportation, installation and unveiling alongside other hallowed names from Reds history.

It means a lot to Brennaman that his statue will conveniently face Joe Nuxhall Way, the street named after his friend and longtime broadcasting partner who also has a statue (as a player) outside the ballpark on Crosley Terrace. It will also sit between the Rose and Morgan statues, two Big Red Machine legends he says he was “closer to than any other players on the team.”

As anticipation for the special day builds, Brennaman knows how important both the honor and the day will be for him.

“This is bigger than the baseball Hall of Fame for me,” Brennaman said. “This is bigger, and people are stunned when I say that. But I say, ‘wait a minute, let's think back here.’ I came here in 1974 and succeeded Al Michaels, who became a pretty good broadcaster. Had it not worked, nothing since then would've ever happened for me.

"To be accepted by the people here is much more important for me than for some guy in San Bernardino, California saying, ‘I know who Marty Brennaman is.’ That's nice, but this is what it's all about right here. I'm going to follow in the same footsteps as Pete Rose and Joe Morgan, who both said the same thing. This was bigger than the Hall of Fame for them and it's bigger than the Hall of Fame for me.”

Fans can join in on the celebration by attending the pregame ceremony at 4 p.m. outside the ballpark, open to all fans before the September 6 game against the New York Mets. Fans in attendance at that night’s game will also receive an oversized commemorative ticket honoring the occasion.

*Click here for more information on the Marty statue dedication!*