Speaker 1: By Billy Cunningham said.
Speaker 2: News in the world baseball earlier today was announced by
Speaker 2: the Milwaukee Brewers that Bob Buker had passed away at
Speaker 2: the age of ninety. He spent about fifty four years
Speaker 2: as a broadcaster. He's a Baseball Hall of Famer and
Speaker 2: certainly a statewide national icon. Noted for mister Belvitere. Also
Speaker 2: his appearances on the Tonight Show were hilarious. A man
Speaker 2: who walked alongside Bob Buker for many, many years is
Speaker 2: Marty Brenneman. And Marty, welcome to the Bill Cunningham Show.
Speaker 2: And when you heard the news earlier today, what was
Speaker 2: your reaction?
Speaker 3: Well, I was shocked. Bill. You know, Bob has not
Speaker 3: been in real good health, and there have been many
Speaker 3: times when I've talked to him that he and I
Speaker 3: have talked, and I, you know, why don't you walk
Speaker 3: away from this? I mean, you've been in here long enough.
Speaker 3: You've gained a nationwide reputation as being one of the
Speaker 3: funniest human beings that ever lived, and you were, as
Speaker 3: you mentioned, he was an icon in Milwaukee. I noticed
Speaker 3: that Brewers put out a release today and said as
Speaker 3: far as they were concerned, he was the number one
Speaker 3: figure in the iires state of Wisconsin, and I don't
Speaker 3: doubt that for one bit. But his health was not good.
Speaker 1: I think he had.
Speaker 3: Two heart procedures in the last ten fifteen years. And
Speaker 3: he did what he wanted to do, and I'm sure
Speaker 3: he went out the way he wanted to go out,
Speaker 3: and that was still very much associated with the Brewers
Speaker 3: Ball Club, even though he had reduced his workload over
Speaker 3: the last number of years because of his help. But
Speaker 3: you know, you hate to see guys go like this.
Speaker 3: You know, the two guys that I've felt I had
Speaker 3: a great relationship with, not that I didn't have a
Speaker 3: lot of relationships, good relations with other broadcasters in baseball,
Speaker 3: all of them for that matter, but the two special
Speaker 3: ones really we're Ben Scully and Bob and before that
Speaker 3: Jack Buck, and you know all those guys are gone. Now. Yeah,
Speaker 3: sometimes it's hard to confront.
Speaker 1: You know, when I look at this history.
Speaker 2: He fought successfully, had multiple heart surgeries, he survived painker
Speaker 2: out of cancer. That's a bad one bite from a
Speaker 2: brown reclose spider melanoma COVID nineteen did it all. And
Speaker 2: when when you talked to him about hey, hey, Bob,
Speaker 2: you've done it all, You're in your uper eighties, ninety
Speaker 2: why not walk away?
Speaker 1: What did he What did he say to you?
Speaker 3: Well, he just he enjoyed. He loved it so much.
Speaker 3: And not that I didn't, but but I felt, you know,
Speaker 3: when I did that, there were things I wanted to do,
Speaker 3: and I wanted to do them when I was healthy
Speaker 3: enough to do them, when Amanda and I wanted to
Speaker 3: do them, and I, you know, I'll never forget when
Speaker 3: I retired and I went to I went to my
Speaker 3: last spring training in nineteen and one of the first
Speaker 3: things I always did was calling when we got to Arizona,
Speaker 3: because that's where he went in the winter time. He's
Speaker 3: lived out out in Arizona for a ton of years.
Speaker 3: And I went over to a broadcast to do in Maryvale,
Speaker 3: which is where the Brewers are located. It's a short
Speaker 3: job drive from Goodyear. And I walked into the race
Speaker 3: booth and there were a lot of people in there,
Speaker 3: and Bob was there, and people were talking about my announcement.
Speaker 3: And Bob said, in front of all these people, he said,
Speaker 3: I really admire you. I said, for what he said,
Speaker 3: because you're walking away from this job. And I said, well,
Speaker 3: he said, I can't do it, And that was pretty
Speaker 3: much the way you felt. You know, guys, people have
Speaker 3: different viewpoints on when they leave or when they will
Speaker 3: ever leave. Some guys want to do it until they
Speaker 3: dropped in. I know Harry Callus with the Philadelphia Phillies,
Speaker 3: who was a dear friend of mine, had come combat
Speaker 3: alcoholism and had had a tough life because he didn't
Speaker 3: missed a thing and his life was in order. And
Speaker 3: I used to talk to him all the time, why
Speaker 3: do you continue to do this? You know you major
Speaker 3: Mark is one of the great broadcasters of all time,
Speaker 3: as Bob did. And the four days later, after my
Speaker 3: last conversation with Harry and we talked about retirement, he
Speaker 3: dropped dead in the TV booth in Washington before a
Speaker 3: National S Phillies game. And I guess those guys enjoyed that,
Speaker 3: you know that they had to pick away to go.
Speaker 3: That's the way they wanted to go. You know, Skelly
Speaker 3: didn't Benny had retired. I think truly, based on some
Speaker 3: of the conversations that Ben and I had, he would
Speaker 3: have retired before he did. So, you know, I retired
Speaker 3: when I felt like I was on top of my
Speaker 3: game and to do the things that a man that
Speaker 3: I've done, that's travel the world, and and I don't
Speaker 3: regret it. Forty six years for me was long enough.
Speaker 1: You had told me a story.
Speaker 2: It might have been Joe that you had a Either
Speaker 2: you or Joe had a conversation with Richie Ashburn, and
Speaker 2: it was you. Joe told me that you had a
Speaker 2: terrible fear that you would die on the road by
Speaker 2: yourself in a hotel room.
Speaker 3: That was me. Yeah, you know, we used to have
Speaker 3: that feature on the air, asked Marty. And they were
Speaker 3: all lighthearted and more often than not funny. And one night,
Speaker 3: for some of the one of the reasons, some reason,
Speaker 3: I just said, I have a tremendous fear of dying
Speaker 3: in a hotel room by myself, and because I saw
Speaker 3: Don Drysdale do it when he was a broadcaster with
Speaker 3: the Dodgers. He died in Montreal in a hotel. Richie
Speaker 3: died in a hotel in New York. And I had
Speaker 3: a fear of that. And people, some people got upset
Speaker 3: because I talked about something that the opinion of him,
Speaker 3: many people were dark, was a dark topping. But somebody
Speaker 3: asked me, do you fear anything? And that's what I said,
Speaker 3: and I felt that way then, and the chances of
Speaker 3: that happening now are minimal because pretty much, thank god,
Speaker 3: Amanda's with me every time we leave town, she's with me,
Speaker 3: or I'm with her more. That would be better way
Speaker 3: to put it when you talk about that, when you
Speaker 3: talk about the greats Marty uh, Bob Prince or joh Harry, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Harry Kerry, Vincecully, you, Denny Matthews, Richie Ashburn, Harry Collis.
Speaker 2: What is Is there a secret sauce? Because there will
Speaker 2: be one thousand men or women jelly guys get into
Speaker 2: the business and they don't connect. They can be their ten, fifteen,
Speaker 2: twenty years and there's not the connection that that small
Speaker 2: group who's going to fill those shoes? Says George Jones,
Speaker 2: there's a special sauce. Do you know what it is?
Speaker 3: You know that? That's a thank you for the comment
Speaker 3: and the compliment. I don't know, Bill, that's a great question.
Speaker 3: That is a because I truly don't think and this
Speaker 3: is not said in a disparaging way, but I truly
Speaker 3: don't think that when you compare the old guys with
Speaker 3: the current crop of baseball broadcasters who have come along.
Speaker 3: I don't think you're going to see those guys held
Speaker 3: in such a reverent manner as the guys the Harwells
Speaker 3: and the Bucks and the Scullies and the Ukers and
Speaker 3: the Bucks and all these guys were hell when they
Speaker 3: were on top of their game. And I don't know
Speaker 3: why I can't answer that question. I don't know whether
Speaker 3: it's a certain quality about those guys that people automatically
Speaker 3: connect with and feel like, you know, he's one of ours.
Speaker 3: I don't know. That's a That's a wonderful question that
Speaker 3: nobody's ever asked me, so I wish I had an
Speaker 3: answer for it.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the it fact.
Speaker 2: You know, you're in a room with somebody might be
Speaker 2: Jerry Jones, might be Neon Dion. And you're in a
Speaker 2: room with somebody. You gonna be twenty thirty guys there,
Speaker 2: and you look around and everybody's looking toward one guy,
Speaker 2: and that guy would be ne On Dion Sanders. It
Speaker 2: might be it might be you, It might be Uh,
Speaker 2: it might be Jerry Jones, it might be Pete Rose.
Speaker 2: That's another You're in a room with somebody and everybody's
Speaker 2: looking toward that guy. It's undefinable, but you know it
Speaker 2: when you see it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. You know, I held Scully in
Speaker 3: such a reverent manner because you know, he was always
Speaker 3: to me and will be until the day they put
Speaker 3: me away as the greatest baseball broadcaster of all time.
Speaker 3: But the quality that set Jnny so much apart, and
Speaker 3: those of us who knew him knew it to be true,
Speaker 3: was he had no ego. I mean, there was hardly
Speaker 3: a day that went by that he didn't go to
Speaker 3: the drug store or go to the grocery store or
Speaker 3: the service station and somebody didn't say to him, you're
Speaker 3: the greatest broadcaster of all time at baseball. And he
Speaker 3: had no ego, so he was so easy to like.
Speaker 3: I don't know, it's an interesting topic, and I don't
Speaker 3: think people held or hold a small broadcaster other baseball
Speaker 3: broadcast play by play guys in other sports as highly
Speaker 3: as they do the game of baseball. And they were great,
Speaker 3: you know, NFL announcers, club announcers at what we're talking about,
Speaker 3: some of the greats of all time that did National
Speaker 3: Football League games.
Speaker 2: It's do you recall the first time you met him,
Speaker 2: because he started a couple of years before you started
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy four. Do you recall when you first met
Speaker 2: Bob Youker.
Speaker 3: You know, it was a while because you know, at
Speaker 3: that time Bill Milwaukee was in the American League and
Speaker 3: the Brewers were and we did not play them. And
Speaker 3: our relationship really started relatively late when the two leagues,
Speaker 3: when we started having interleague play, and then of course
Speaker 3: Milwaukee came into the National League. Again. I don't really remember,
Speaker 3: but we had such a we automatically connected. I'll never forget.
Speaker 3: He used to come into town and we would play
Speaker 3: golf out at the Oasis with doctor David Schneider and
Speaker 3: doctor Rick Abramson, and you cannot believe the conversations. I mean,
Speaker 3: you were fall down, Brian. It was such a funny
Speaker 3: four hours to suspend with him, and they're the moments
Speaker 3: that I cherished him. Oh. He used to come over
Speaker 3: with our radio booth when Joe and I were working together,
Speaker 3: and he would he said one time, I'll never forget
Speaker 3: he made the comedy. He said, I now fully understand
Speaker 3: why you and Marty have such a hold on fan
Speaker 3: support in this town. And Joe God bless him. Why
Speaker 3: do you think so, he said, because of the very
Speaker 3: close personal that word personal was in quotes relationship you
Speaker 3: had with Marshat.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: At it would drive Joe nuts and Bob would leave
Speaker 3: and he'd come back again a month to six weeks later.
Speaker 3: He'd say it again, Joe get all bent out of
Speaker 3: shape again. It was just, yeah, it was just it
Speaker 3: was amazing. It was. And he went into Baseball Hall
Speaker 3: of Fame in two thousand and three, and I'd gone
Speaker 3: in three years earlier. And I called him on the phone. Well,
Speaker 3: I'll never forget. I was in spring training where they
Speaker 3: announced it, and I was driving to the ballpark in
Speaker 3: Sarasota and I called him on the phone and I said,
Speaker 3: what are you doing. I said, congratulations. He said, thanks
Speaker 3: a lot. I said, what Time's a news conference? He
Speaker 3: said what news conference? I said, damn, I said, you
Speaker 3: got to have a news conference. I mean, you've been
Speaker 3: named to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I know the
Speaker 3: Brewers HA got to be. He said, I'm playing golf
Speaker 3: and I said that's wonderful. I said, you can play
Speaker 3: golf tomorrow. He said, They're gonna have to wait on me.
Speaker 3: He said, I'm having a pretty damn good round of
Speaker 3: golf right now. If they won't have a news conference,
Speaker 3: they either got to come out here or they have
Speaker 3: to do it on my terms, because I'm not leaving
Speaker 3: golf to go for the news conference. And I said, boy, you're.
Speaker 1: Something that can you relate the Red's country.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's true or not, but I'm
Speaker 2: told Tommy Thrawl when he started kind of wanted to
Speaker 2: meet Bob youuger, and so he says to you, Hey, Marty,
Speaker 2: can you take me over to the Milwaukee and please
Speaker 2: introduce me to Bob you crown to meet that guy?
Speaker 1: Can you tell that story?
Speaker 3: I don't really remember.
Speaker 2: I am told that you went over there with him
Speaker 2: and that you're standing with Tommy throwing. There's ker and
Speaker 2: he like brushed him off. Hey Marty, how are you doing?
Speaker 1: Hey this?
Speaker 3: Tommy know that, yeah, yes, but that had been set up.
Speaker 3: I know that had been set up.
Speaker 1: Tommy Thrall didn't know that, did he?
Speaker 3: He had no idea? And I said, and it just
Speaker 3: felt it was like it was choreographed because I took
Speaker 3: Tommy over there and introduced him and Bob blew him
Speaker 3: also bad. It was a shame. I mean, he didn't
Speaker 3: give him two seconds of his attention. And Tommy was crestfallen.
Speaker 3: I mean he was he felt like his world had
Speaker 3: come to it in And then of course Bob laughed
Speaker 3: and welcomed the end of the fraternity. But it was
Speaker 3: really funny. That's a that took place in at their
Speaker 3: place in Milwaukee. Really, it was the funniest thing you
Speaker 3: could pull that stuff off.
Speaker 2: Oh he was the best. You know, it's been a
Speaker 2: tough few months for you, get it? How do you
Speaker 2: process it? Because all of us share one thing that
Speaker 2: is our human death, the Pete Rose thing. I talked
Speaker 2: to you a little bit a couple of days age
Speaker 2: that I can't talk about it and explain that.
Speaker 1: Well, why it's been a few bad months for Marty.
Speaker 3: Well, I can start by telling you something you can
Speaker 3: relate to, because you ain't exactly a spring chicken either.
Speaker 3: But as somebody once said to me a million years
Speaker 3: ago when I was young, that if you're lucky enough
Speaker 3: to live long enough, and long would be defined in
Speaker 3: various numbers of years. However, you know we're talking about
Speaker 3: a goodly number of years to thank God, be on
Speaker 3: this earth and be relatively healthy, and that if you
Speaker 3: live long enough, you're going to wake up one day
Speaker 3: and people that were your colleagues, that were dear friends
Speaker 3: of yours are all going to be gone, and you're
Speaker 3: going to be the last one standing. And now it
Speaker 3: impacts me more and more and more. It all started
Speaker 3: when when Joe Morgan died, and then when Vinnie went,
Speaker 3: and EAT's gone, and now Bob is gone. And you
Speaker 3: realize that that that's a truism in every sense of
Speaker 3: the word. And I'm finding that to be the case.
Speaker 3: And it's as it strikes home even more now than
Speaker 3: it did when I was first told that, because you
Speaker 3: when you're when you're forty or fifty, you don't relate
Speaker 3: to that, but when you're eighty plus, you you do
Speaker 3: relate to it. And and I just I hate to
Speaker 3: see these guys go. I went back and looked in
Speaker 3: the last communication that he and I had was on
Speaker 3: Christmas Day when he sent me Merry Christmas greetings and
Speaker 3: telling me how he is what Judy were doing and
Speaker 3: I and I always would say to him, I hope
Speaker 3: you're doing well, and he did not comment on that.
Speaker 3: And obviously you're talking less than a month ago and
Speaker 3: now he's gone.
Speaker 2: So allegedly he succumbed a small cell lung cancer. And Marty,
Speaker 2: how would you like to be remembered? How would Marty
Speaker 2: Brenneman like to be remembered in Red's country?
Speaker 3: Well, I guess from a professional standpoint, Bill, I'd like
Speaker 3: to be remembered as a guy who had had a
Speaker 3: lot of credibility that you could believe what he said
Speaker 3: when he said something on the air. Credibility was very
Speaker 3: important to me. And I would like to be remembered
Speaker 3: as a person who related well to fans and and
Speaker 3: and was good to them because they were good to
Speaker 3: be And I think it's a two way street. I
Speaker 3: think if you're a jerk around fans and you feel
Speaker 3: like you're put upon when somebody asks you for an
Speaker 3: autograph in the middle of a restaurant, which I never
Speaker 3: felt that way, they would probably be the things that
Speaker 3: were most important to me as a person who was,
Speaker 3: you know, constantly crossing paths with people who either enjoyed
Speaker 3: your work or knew who you were and judged you
Speaker 3: by the way you treated them, and that maybe one
Speaker 3: moment that they ever crossed paths with you, every time
Speaker 3: I hear about somebody meeting a friend of mine meeting
Speaker 3: somebody who was extremely successful in the public eye, was
Speaker 3: a celebrity, the first question I ask is, I don't
Speaker 3: what they've done as a professional is obvious. What I'm
Speaker 3: more concerned about is what kind of person they were,
Speaker 3: and if they say, oh, he's a great person, a
Speaker 3: great guy, great lady, that may before to me than
Speaker 3: the fact that they were incredibly successful in whatever they
Speaker 3: chosen walk in life was now.
Speaker 2: One thing I can say about the Hall of Famers,
Speaker 2: when you meet someone who can either help you nor
Speaker 2: hurt you, and treat them both the same, because that's
Speaker 2: the quality of a man, is how you treat those
Speaker 2: who can neither help you nor hurt you. Marty, May
Speaker 2: you have many, many, many more good rounds of golf,
Speaker 2: and I know what you're saying about friends and others
Speaker 2: passing away allows one to reflect on one's own mortality.
Speaker 3: Billy Well showed well, said my man.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you, Marty, Thanks Billy, Let's continue. Bill
Speaker 1: Cunningham News Radio seven hundred WLW