Thom Brennaman says the internet lampooning of his notorious mid-apology Nick Castellanos home run call used to bother him – but that he has let it go.
Brennaman appeared on “If You Don’t Like That With Grant Napear,” the podcast by the former Sacramento Kings broadcaster let go by the team after he said that “All lives matter.”
In an event that took on a surreal life of its own, Brennaman was caught on a hot mic during a Reds game using an anti-gay slur. He was given the opportunity to deliver a somber apology, not knowing if or when he would ever return to a broadcast booth, and interrupted it to call a home run to left by Castellanos. The call has been a punchline and meme ever since.
Nary a week or two goes by where a joke centered on it doesn’t go viral. Napear asked Brennaman if this bothered him.
“It did,” Brennaman said. “But you know, Grant, I was able to just let it go. Because I mean, you know, you realize when you go through any number of things. And look, there are people and children and animals for that matter in this world to feel bad for — Thom Brennaman’s not one of them. I’m not one of those guys to feel bad for. I created the situation and I’m the one that’s got to live with it — don’t feel bad about it for me. But yes, when you’re going through in that moment in time and you’re live on television. There is a game going on which you’re also trying to announce — because that’s why you’re there.”
Brennaman spoke about the emotions of the fact that he had been working in broadcasting for 35 years, realizing in real-time it was likely all crashing down. Nonetheless, he thought the criticism of the apology showed a much larger problem.
“For people to criticize a sincere apology when everything that was going on in my quote-unquote world at that point in time — it was the best I could do,” Brennaman said. “And once you hear people, Grant, start criticizing your apology? That’s when you know that there is a lot wrong with a lot of people. Not just me — and I’ve got a lot wrong with me. There is a lot wrong in this world.”
Brennaman had addressed in July his fatigue of the joke.
“You know it bothered me for a long time and it bothered my son a lot, who is 16 years old, that it’s almost become a joke,” Brennaman said. “And I’m not on Twitter. I’m not on social media. Because I can be told by my wife what a jerk I am all the time. I don’t need 10,000 other people telling me what a jerk I am. But to make light of it, like, you know ‘the Castellanos home run,’ I mean I’ve heard it 1,000 times.”
But, he said, he kept in perspective that he is not dealing with death or disease either with himself or with his family, and that allowed him to own the joke.
“You know, at the end of the day – now that a year has gone by – I can laugh about it,” Brennaman said.