Longtime Cincinnati Reds play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman resigned from his job with the team after a homophobic slur he uttered made it over the airwaves. The reproachful language impacted his broadcasting career at large, but he is receiving a proverbial second chance this fall with The CW calling college football games. Yet a moment that has been associated with Brennaman since the incident has been the situation surrounding his apology. As Brennaman expressed his remorse and explained that he thought of himself as a man of faith, he reverted into calling a home run hit by then-Cincinnati Reds outfielder Nick Castellanos. With Castellanos extending the team’s lead in the game, he articulated that he was unsure if he would put on the headset again and handed off the broadcast.
In recent years, Castellanos has become associated with hitting home runs at the wrong time, coinciding with historical and/or significant events in the world. Whether it was a broadcast eulogizing a World War II veteran, honoring fallen service members on Memorial Day or wishing former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel well after suffering a stroke, Castellanos has inadvertently hit home runs in these moments. Dan Le Batard took time during his eponymous program, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, to replay the audio of Brennaman’s apology and commemorate the four-year anniversary of the occurrence.
“I know that we’re not allowed to have a sense of humor about these kinds of things,” Le Batard said. “That is better as a dismount than Michael Jordan hitting the shot over Byron Russell as the end of a career. I know Brennaman’s coming back just like Michael did, but that would have been a great dismount if we could just laugh for eternity on the dumb things that human beings do because they’re human.”
In a recent interview with Barrett Media, Brennaman discussed the situation in detail where he explained that he decided to resign the job after his children were hearing it every day while attending high school. Furthermore, he conveyed that he was “mortified” because of what he said and how he hurt people and also knew it would be a difficult road ahead for him to rekindle his broadcast career.
Castellanos currently plays for the Philadelphia Phillies where he has been in the lineup for all 124 of the team’s games as it has a seven-game lead for first place in the National League East division. Although he has had several monumental seasons throughout his career, including his final season in Cincinnati where he finished with 34 home runs and 100 RBIs, sports fans have associated him with Brennaman and his apology for the last four years.
“This is what I will remember him for, and I think that goes for everybody listening to this as well,” Le Batard said. “Nick Castellanos is, I don’t know, he’s in his 30s, so he’s had a 10-year career that’s bounced around a little bit – Detroit and Cincinnati, and now he’s in Philadelphia and he’s got a big contract – but I won’t associate him with anything else. The fact that he interrupts moments with home runs – historic moments – he bounces outside of baseball because of the comedy of that specific time during the pandemic when we were all looking to laugh.”
Brennaman was calling the game remotely from the FOX Sports Ohio studios, and it turned out to be his last broadcast with the regional sports network. As Castellanos and the Phillies aim to win a World Series championship in the fall, Brennaman will make his return to the air with The CW as part of its coverage of college football and college basketball while continuing to host the Dialed In podcast for Chatterbox Sports.
