August 23, 2025 • 9 mins
The bronze statue of Hall of Famer Marty Brennaman will be dedicated on Saturday, September 6th, prior to the Reds game against the New York Mets.
Reds Hall of Fame and Museum Executive Director Rick Walls joined us to talk about the statue, the ceremonies, and the Hall of Fame Statue Campaign.
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Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
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Instagram too: @MoEgger
Reds Hall of Fame and Museum Executive Director Rick Walls joined us to talk about the statue, the ceremonies, and the Hall of Fame Statue Campaign.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Two weekends from right now shapes up to be a
huge weekend, a GABP. If things continue the way they've
gone now for a while. The New York Mets are
going to be in town that weekend, and obviously those
two teams separated as we speak, by a half game
in the hunt for the last wildcard spot, So that
could be a huge weekend. Will be a huge weekend
(00:20):
Reds and Mets a GABP. And wrapped around that is
the Marty Brenneman statue dedication, which is going to happen
on Saturday, September sixth. Marty is going to participate in
the official unveiling of the statue outside the ballpark there
at Crosley Terrace at four o'clock. The game is that night.
There's going to be a ceremony inside the ballpark before
(00:42):
the game. This is obviously extraordinarily well deserved, and to
talk with us about it is the executive director of
the Reds Hall of Fame m Museum, our buddy Rick Walls. Ricketts,
going to have you. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
No, I'm doing great, Thanks for having me. And it's
fun watching Reds baseball right now.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It sure is. It's a fun team. It's a fun
time and this is an honor for Marty that is
well deserved. What goes into the decision making process when
it comes to determining who gets a statue.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You know, it's been since Pete Rose had a statue,
right that we've added a new one to the ballpark.
It started in twenty and eleven with Johnny Bench and
it was followed with the rest of what is called
the Big four, big part of the Grade eight, you know,
with Morgan and Perez and then Rose and if you
look across that, with the exception of Rose, the ones
(01:32):
that the Hall of Fame is commissioned. The criteria essentially
is National Hall of Fame recognition, which Marty has and
that's the one that Pete doesn't have. But we all
know about that story. So Tony, Joe and Johnny their
numbers are retired. They're in the Reds Hall of Fame
and mentioned the National Hall of Fame. So that's kind
of the baseline criteria that we look at, you know,
(01:53):
the highest levels. The other statues that are on Crosley
Terrace were added there as part of a fan vote
back and the ballpark was built. You know, the popular
figures from the Crosley air well deserving of those statues
out there. But moving forward, this is kind of what
we based it on. And you know, forty six years
Marty makes the Hall of Fame. He's the first non player, manager,
(02:15):
executive owner to make the Hall of Fame. And really
as an anomaly, I mean, he stands out above, you know,
someone who's committed that much time to this brand, to
share Reds Baseball to everyone across Red's Country and then
commit himself in the community to support so many worthy causes.
He's just he's just really synonymous with Cincinnati Red's Baseball
(02:37):
to so many. And now when they show up at
the ballpark and you walk on the Crossley Terrace, you're
going to see a statue of Marty calling the game
just like you remember him doing. And the beautiful thing
about it, and I know this is important to him.
It's right next to Joe Morgan, Pete and Tony, the
three statues right in front of him, and of course
Johnny just down the road. But calling so many of
(02:58):
their moments. He was not only there broadcaster, he was
their friend.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, an iconic broadcaster, an iconic figure, and an iconic moment. Now.
I would think though that if you're in charge of
sculpting this statue right and any one of them, you
want accuracy. You want to do right by the person.
But if you don't do right by Marty, he's going
to tell you about it. So a lot of pressure
on Tom Shushia. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Tom knew this from the get go. You know, the
he loves doing these. When we talked to him about these,
he has a lot of great ideas. He brings the
ideas to the table. They're discussed internally within the organization,
they're talked about with you know, other just just associates
and friends and people who would have an interest in this.
In this case, John Burns is a friend of Marty
(03:40):
and he's our primary supporter with Encore Technologies, and we
all got together and this seems to be the perfect
way to kind of represent Marty, you know in the
boos calling the game. Just think about listening to him
on the radio in your car, home, in the backyard
and your living room. And so many people that have
(04:00):
really connected themselves to the game when they couldn't go
to the ballpark, and it's because of Marty, you know,
mostly Marty the way he called the game and brought
it to me. You're right, he told him the way
he felt, you know, he called it the way he
saw it. And he has had a lot of opinions
on the statue, which is exactly the way Tom wants it.
You don't want it after the fact, you want it
(04:22):
before you turn it to bronze, exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, so a lot of pressure for Tom. Now there
is the Hall of Fame statue campaign.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Tell me about this, yeah, so again, the Hall of Commissions,
these these are part of our mission to celebrate the
greatness of so many that have contributed to this game,
and Marty is one of those. So, you know, Hall
of Fame is behind this, raising the money. We've got
a lot of Red's owners, We've got a lot of
individuals and supporters and organizations that have known Marty for
(04:51):
so long. So it really becomes kind of a melting
pot of the fan base and the corporate base that
want to see this statue there and are helping us
the costs of the statue, cover the ceremonies, the suite
at the ballpark, a party for Marty, things like that.
They're just going to keep this thing at the ballpark
for a long, long, long time, and fans can donate
(05:14):
as low as forty six dollars to be part of
the Marty Legacy forty six club that's representative of the
forty six years, and you're going to get a pen
and also certificate getting a picture of the statue after
the event. Or you can get a brick. I mean,
one way to help us out is to buy a
brick at the ballpark right in front of the Marty statue,
which will have your name or message on it. You
(05:35):
can choose two different sizes and one can have a
microphone on it if you want, and it's installed, and
you get a keepsake brick mail to your house as well.
So whether it's forty six dollars, one nine or three
ninety nine, those are three ways you can get involved
with the statue and help us out.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
It's Saturday, September sixth is the unveiling. The Reds play
the Mets that night at six forty. The dedication ceremony
is at four o'clock. Run through everything that'll be happening
that afternoon.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, so you want to get down there a little
bit early to get advantage point at four o'clock we
will start because we'll have forty minutes till approximately the
gates open two hours before the game and a big crowds.
You were talking about Mets series, this could be hopping
down here. This should be one great baseball weekend. But
the ceremony will kick off. There'll be some some great introductions,
some people. They'll talk about Marty. Marty will give his response,
(06:26):
and then Marty will pull off the drape that will
unveil and dedicate the statue so that it'll be open
the rest of the night for fans to see and
from then forward. And as you mentioned before, following that ceremony,
they'll be an on field dedication or ceremony with Marty
as well. That's always a nice way to do something
on the field. We've done it with all of the
statue presentations in the past.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
But there'll be about.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Two hundred seats for our donors and VIPs right in
front of the statue. But think about where it is.
It's right on the Reds front office building, facing directly west,
looking right at Pete Rose's statue. So we've got the
street and we've got Crosley Terrace. Some good advantage points.
I expected to be packed, and we'll also show it
on the Hall of Fame video board through the bank,
(07:10):
so if you're not right there, you can see it
and hear it down the street a little bit. It's
going to be crowded.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Marty is a man who has been honored often throughout
the course of his life and obviously his career. What
was it like when he was informed that he was
going to be honored in this way.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Well, one of the great privileges I've had was being
part of the group that got to tell him and
kind of surprise him. So it's kind of hard to
pull one over on Marty, but we I think we did.
I think we accomplished that. And we called him down
for a meeting. I said, we wanted to talk about
the fiftieth anniversary of the Big Red Machine, and he
and Amanda came down to the ballpark. We had a
(07:48):
video set up in front of where the statue would be.
He didn't know what it was for. I brought him
over to us, said, hey, we jay answer some questions
about opening day. This is pre opening day, So John
Burns and I were talking to him him and brought
up the question about the statues and somebody, John said, well,
where is your statue, Marty, and Marty's oh, yeah, sure,
the checks and the mail and then we paused for
(08:09):
a second and Marty I said, you know, Marty, this
is why we're here. And he was really emotional about
it and realized this was a setup and it was
really a cool moment and to see him react, and
I've seen him react since then about this. All the
people that have gotten statues have felt this way, and
it means something different to each one of them. You
(08:30):
hear it in their speech, you hear the emotion, and
Marty is no difference than anyone else. And he is
going to get up there and this is going to
be a one. I think it's going to be a
great moment in Red's history. You know, he created so
many moments. This is one for him. We've said this,
this one belongs to Marty, and I think it does.
So it's going to be a great day on September sixth.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
September sixth, statue dedication ceremony at four o'clock, there'll be
a Marty Brenneman commemorative ticket. That night, Reds and Met's
play at six forty pregame ceremonies inside the ballpark at
six pm, and you could support the Hall of Fame
statue campaign, join the Marty's forty six Club. Go to
Redsmuseum dot org slash Marty Rick. It's a it's always
(09:14):
awesome to have it's been. We're not talking about a
Hall of Fame class this year, I'll admit that to you,
but fun to have you.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Nonetheless, Yeah, we had the fiftieth anniversary. We'll do it
next year, hopefully with the Hall of Fame class. But
right now it's all about Marty and watching the Reds
play on the field the rest of the season. Let's
hoping for good.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Thanks, no question about that. Thank you as always, all right,
we thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Take care again.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Check out Reds dot com, slash Redsmuseum dot org slash Marty.
That's Redsmuseum dot org slash Marty
Two weekends from right now shapes up to be a
huge weekend, a GABP. If things continue the way they've
gone now for a while. The New York Mets are
going to be in town that weekend, and obviously those
two teams separated as we speak, by a half game
in the hunt for the last wildcard spot, So that
could be a huge weekend. Will be a huge weekend
(00:20):
Reds and Mets a GABP. And wrapped around that is
the Marty Brenneman statue dedication, which is going to happen
on Saturday, September sixth. Marty is going to participate in
the official unveiling of the statue outside the ballpark there
at Crosley Terrace at four o'clock. The game is that night.
There's going to be a ceremony inside the ballpark before
(00:42):
the game. This is obviously extraordinarily well deserved, and to
talk with us about it is the executive director of
the Reds Hall of Fame m Museum, our buddy Rick Walls. Ricketts,
going to have you. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
No, I'm doing great, Thanks for having me. And it's
fun watching Reds baseball right now.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
It sure is. It's a fun team. It's a fun
time and this is an honor for Marty that is
well deserved. What goes into the decision making process when
it comes to determining who gets a statue.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
You know, it's been since Pete Rose had a statue,
right that we've added a new one to the ballpark.
It started in twenty and eleven with Johnny Bench and
it was followed with the rest of what is called
the Big four, big part of the Grade eight, you know,
with Morgan and Perez and then Rose and if you
look across that, with the exception of Rose, the ones
(01:32):
that the Hall of Fame is commissioned. The criteria essentially
is National Hall of Fame recognition, which Marty has and
that's the one that Pete doesn't have. But we all
know about that story. So Tony, Joe and Johnny their
numbers are retired. They're in the Reds Hall of Fame
and mentioned the National Hall of Fame. So that's kind
of the baseline criteria that we look at, you know,
(01:53):
the highest levels. The other statues that are on Crosley
Terrace were added there as part of a fan vote
back and the ballpark was built. You know, the popular
figures from the Crosley air well deserving of those statues
out there. But moving forward, this is kind of what
we based it on. And you know, forty six years
Marty makes the Hall of Fame. He's the first non player, manager,
(02:15):
executive owner to make the Hall of Fame. And really
as an anomaly, I mean, he stands out above, you know,
someone who's committed that much time to this brand, to
share Reds Baseball to everyone across Red's Country and then
commit himself in the community to support so many worthy causes.
He's just he's just really synonymous with Cincinnati Red's Baseball
(02:37):
to so many. And now when they show up at
the ballpark and you walk on the Crossley Terrace, you're
going to see a statue of Marty calling the game
just like you remember him doing. And the beautiful thing
about it, and I know this is important to him.
It's right next to Joe Morgan, Pete and Tony, the
three statues right in front of him, and of course
Johnny just down the road. But calling so many of
(02:58):
their moments. He was not only there broadcaster, he was
their friend.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, an iconic broadcaster, an iconic figure, and an iconic moment. Now.
I would think though that if you're in charge of
sculpting this statue right and any one of them, you
want accuracy. You want to do right by the person.
But if you don't do right by Marty, he's going
to tell you about it. So a lot of pressure
on Tom Shushia. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Tom knew this from the get go. You know, the
he loves doing these. When we talked to him about these,
he has a lot of great ideas. He brings the
ideas to the table. They're discussed internally within the organization,
they're talked about with you know, other just just associates
and friends and people who would have an interest in this.
In this case, John Burns is a friend of Marty
(03:40):
and he's our primary supporter with Encore Technologies, and we
all got together and this seems to be the perfect
way to kind of represent Marty, you know in the
boos calling the game. Just think about listening to him
on the radio in your car, home, in the backyard
and your living room. And so many people that have
(04:00):
really connected themselves to the game when they couldn't go
to the ballpark, and it's because of Marty, you know,
mostly Marty the way he called the game and brought
it to me. You're right, he told him the way
he felt, you know, he called it the way he
saw it. And he has had a lot of opinions
on the statue, which is exactly the way Tom wants it.
You don't want it after the fact, you want it
(04:22):
before you turn it to bronze, exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Yeah, so a lot of pressure for Tom. Now there
is the Hall of Fame statue campaign.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Tell me about this, yeah, so again, the Hall of Commissions,
these these are part of our mission to celebrate the
greatness of so many that have contributed to this game,
and Marty is one of those. So, you know, Hall
of Fame is behind this, raising the money. We've got
a lot of Red's owners, We've got a lot of
individuals and supporters and organizations that have known Marty for
(04:51):
so long. So it really becomes kind of a melting
pot of the fan base and the corporate base that
want to see this statue there and are helping us
the costs of the statue, cover the ceremonies, the suite
at the ballpark, a party for Marty, things like that.
They're just going to keep this thing at the ballpark
for a long, long, long time, and fans can donate
(05:14):
as low as forty six dollars to be part of
the Marty Legacy forty six club that's representative of the
forty six years, and you're going to get a pen
and also certificate getting a picture of the statue after
the event. Or you can get a brick. I mean,
one way to help us out is to buy a
brick at the ballpark right in front of the Marty statue,
which will have your name or message on it. You
(05:35):
can choose two different sizes and one can have a
microphone on it if you want, and it's installed, and
you get a keepsake brick mail to your house as well.
So whether it's forty six dollars, one nine or three
ninety nine, those are three ways you can get involved
with the statue and help us out.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
It's Saturday, September sixth is the unveiling. The Reds play
the Mets that night at six forty. The dedication ceremony
is at four o'clock. Run through everything that'll be happening
that afternoon.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, so you want to get down there a little
bit early to get advantage point at four o'clock we
will start because we'll have forty minutes till approximately the
gates open two hours before the game and a big crowds.
You were talking about Mets series, this could be hopping
down here. This should be one great baseball weekend. But
the ceremony will kick off. There'll be some some great introductions,
some people. They'll talk about Marty. Marty will give his response,
(06:26):
and then Marty will pull off the drape that will
unveil and dedicate the statue so that it'll be open
the rest of the night for fans to see and
from then forward. And as you mentioned before, following that ceremony,
they'll be an on field dedication or ceremony with Marty
as well. That's always a nice way to do something
on the field. We've done it with all of the
statue presentations in the past.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
But there'll be about.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Two hundred seats for our donors and VIPs right in
front of the statue. But think about where it is.
It's right on the Reds front office building, facing directly west,
looking right at Pete Rose's statue. So we've got the
street and we've got Crosley Terrace. Some good advantage points.
I expected to be packed, and we'll also show it
on the Hall of Fame video board through the bank,
(07:10):
so if you're not right there, you can see it
and hear it down the street a little bit. It's
going to be crowded.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Marty is a man who has been honored often throughout
the course of his life and obviously his career. What
was it like when he was informed that he was
going to be honored in this way.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Well, one of the great privileges I've had was being
part of the group that got to tell him and
kind of surprise him. So it's kind of hard to
pull one over on Marty, but we I think we did.
I think we accomplished that. And we called him down
for a meeting. I said, we wanted to talk about
the fiftieth anniversary of the Big Red Machine, and he
and Amanda came down to the ballpark. We had a
(07:48):
video set up in front of where the statue would be.
He didn't know what it was for. I brought him
over to us, said, hey, we jay answer some questions
about opening day. This is pre opening day, So John
Burns and I were talking to him him and brought
up the question about the statues and somebody, John said, well,
where is your statue, Marty, and Marty's oh, yeah, sure,
the checks and the mail and then we paused for
(08:09):
a second and Marty I said, you know, Marty, this
is why we're here. And he was really emotional about
it and realized this was a setup and it was
really a cool moment and to see him react, and
I've seen him react since then about this. All the
people that have gotten statues have felt this way, and
it means something different to each one of them. You
(08:30):
hear it in their speech, you hear the emotion, and
Marty is no difference than anyone else. And he is
going to get up there and this is going to
be a one. I think it's going to be a
great moment in Red's history. You know, he created so
many moments. This is one for him. We've said this,
this one belongs to Marty, and I think it does.
So it's going to be a great day on September sixth.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
September sixth, statue dedication ceremony at four o'clock, there'll be
a Marty Brenneman commemorative ticket. That night, Reds and Met's
play at six forty pregame ceremonies inside the ballpark at
six pm, and you could support the Hall of Fame
statue campaign, join the Marty's forty six Club. Go to
Redsmuseum dot org slash Marty Rick. It's a it's always
(09:14):
awesome to have it's been. We're not talking about a
Hall of Fame class this year, I'll admit that to you,
but fun to have you.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Nonetheless, Yeah, we had the fiftieth anniversary. We'll do it
next year, hopefully with the Hall of Fame class. But
right now it's all about Marty and watching the Reds
play on the field the rest of the season. Let's
hoping for good.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Thanks, no question about that. Thank you as always, all right,
we thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Take care again.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Check out Reds dot com, slash Redsmuseum dot org slash Marty.
That's Redsmuseum dot org slash Marty
Mo Egger News
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