Reds Minor League Broadcaster Credits Marty Brennaman for His Growth

We had the pleasure of sitting down with new Daytona Tortugas broadcaster Matthew Mouncey. Mouncey is a TCU grad and is climbing the ranks in the broadcasting world. We talked about his baseball fandom, who he models his style after, and more.

One thing he mentioned was a connection he gained while at TCU with none other than Cincinnati Reds broadcasting legend, Marty Brennaman.

“There are only so many jobs," Mounsey said. "But there are hundreds and, you know, into the thousands of people just like me that are trying to get professional broadcasting jobs. And there just aren't the jobs to accommodate people. And so, one, you have to get lucky, but two, you kind of have to have, it sounds kind of corny to know the right people. And I don't really like saying that because I think it is much more merit-based than that. But to have people that will go to bat for you, sort of thing, and one of those people was Kiva Fuller, our general manager in Elizabethan."

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"But another was actually Reds' legendary broadcaster, Hall of Famer Marty Brenneman. And so, I had, and this is kind of the lucky part of it, right? My sophomore year at TCU, I sat down in English comp two, basic, your basic English class, nothing special, writing essays, and I'm sitting next to Ella Brenneman, Marty's granddaughter, Tom's daughter, outstanding woman, can't say enough good things about Ella, one of my good friends, and still to this day, we text every now and then.”

Mousey mentioned how Marty Brennaman gave him advice and told stories of his early broadcasting career. He even helped him land his new job with Daytona.

“She's like, just call him, just call him." Mounsey said. "Marty Brenneman? Just call him? For a guy like me, you know that's kind of weird, but I'm like, all right. And so I call him and he answers on the first ring. He's like, he doesn't have a radio voice either. He sounds exactly like he does on the air. 'This is Marty, how are you doing?' And, oh, Mr. Brenneman, Ella gave me your number. She said it would be good for us to chat. And I mean, me and Mr. Brenneman probably talked for about 30, 45 minutes the first time we were on the phone.”

“I've heard that they got over 500 resumes emailed for this job, which is just that's every job in minor league baseball broadcasting. It's unreal. But anyway, Mr. Brenneman ended up connecting me with Bob, one of our owners. We have three main owners that are partners with the Tortugas. And he connected me with Bob. Bob connected me with Jim, our general manager, and then had a couple of interviews with Jim. I know that they were considering some other people as well. But I got very fortunate to be able to land this. For someone like me at my age, it's a complete dream. It's what I've wanted to do my entire life. So thank you to Bob and Marty Brenneman and Jim. Again, that was long-winded, but it was a pretty crazy ride to get here, honestly.”

Mounsey is embarking on his inaugural year as a broadcaster with the Daytona Tortugas. During his college years at TCU, he called games, and later, he worked as a broadcaster for the Elizabethan River Riders in the Appalachian League. You can listen to the entire interview below.

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