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Marty Shaves His Head / Jamie Ramsey, Better Off Red
When news first hit last weekend that Brennaman could lose his hair, it sounded like it was going to happen in the clubhouse with a player shaving his head. However, with the class and grace of Mr. Brennaman, he turned it into a fundraising event to the benefit of three local charities.
The first two mentioned were:
The Reds Community Fund
–The RCF is dedicated to improving the lives of youth by leveraging the tradition of the Cincinnati Reds and the game of baseball.
The Joe Nuxhall Character Education Fund
–To increase the awareness and development of character to create a more respectful society.
During the shaving on the TV broadcast, you caught of few glimpses of children on the field without any hair, and you knew that Brennaman had something even more planned:
“Afterward, wearing a T-shirt that read “I’m Still Me,” Brennaman welcomed three young cancer patients from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center onto the field with him.
“My friend John was at the Children’s Hospital the other day and a young lady said to him, a patient, ‘On Friday night, Marty Brennaman will look like us,’” Brennaman said before kissing the children’s heads. “And I can’t begin to tell you how much that touched my heart and how thrilled I am to be a part of your world.”
–In selecting an object to represent our mission, we turned to the dragonfly, a small insect that flies extremely fast. The dragonfly exemplifies the virtues of living life to the fullest by being a symbol of strength, survival and victory! With time of the essence, The Dragonfly Foundation is acting quickly to bring comfort and joy to children and young adults living with, and sometimes dying of, cancer and blood diseases.
If you’d like to see more pictures or the video of Friday night’s shaving, you can check it out at Reds assistant media relations director Jamie Ramsey’s blog, Better Off Red.
Marty Brennaman and children from the Dragonfly Foundation / Video screen grab from Reds.com article
Marty Brennaman, a man of his word and a man with a heart of gold.
Dammit! I don’t come to this site to tear up!
Luckily I can’t get mad at Marty being a debbie downer this season, because then I wouldn’t be able to get mad at him for this. I don’t know who came to who with the idea to get corporations and the fans to donate to the charities, but everyone except the hair on Marty’s head won in this one.
That really was great, by both the Reds and by Marty. That part at the end when his voice cracks while he says, “On Friday, Marty Brennaman will look like us” is awesome.
Go Reds, go Marty!
I think his new countenance looks entirely too much like Mikey Brown.
I generally don’t like Marty because of the short way he deals with most fans but I have to give it to him on this one. Very classy move.