11 women who would make kickass MLB announcers
When women get jobs as broadcasters with Major League Baseball teams, most of them head to the same place.
The sidelines.
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For various reasons, the television announcers’ booth remains a man’s domain. None of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball have a female announcer regularly calling games on TV.
The problem certainly isn’t a lack of qualified women. To illustrate the point, we’ve put together a list of 11 women who would make excellent candidates for the broadcast booth.
Caveats: These women may not actually want the job, we just think they would be good at it.
1. Jessica Mendoza
Covers: MLB
Company: ESPN
Twitter: @jessmendoza
Her credentials: The sports announcer made her name as a softball star. She won two Olympic medals with Team USA—gold in 2004 and silver in 2008—and has three world championship medals on top of that. Her stats in those five competitions, via espnW: .372 batting average, nine home runs, and 44 RBIs. Just plain dominant.
She retired from pro softball in May 2014 and now serves as an ESPN college softball and baseball analyst. She also contributes to the network’s flagship MLB program, Baseball Tonight. A full-time announcing gig seems like the natural next step.
“I have enjoyed growing as an analyst within both college softball and baseball and look forward to hopefully using that same knowledge in the booth for an MLB game as well,” she told Fusion via email.
2. Alanna Rizzo
Covers: Los Angeles Dodgers
Company: SportsNet LA
Twitter: @alannarizzo
Her credentials: Rizzo is entering her second season with the Dodgers as a sideline reporter, but she’s covered games for the Colorado Rockies and MLB Network. Beyond that, she speaks fluent Spanish and translates in real-time for stars like Yasiel Puig.
Legendary announcer Vin Scully will eventually leave the booth and right now the Dodgers have three men — Nomar Garciaparra, Orel Hershiser and Charley Steiner — poised to take over. If they were smart, they’d add Rizzo to the mix.3. Renel Brooks-Moon
Job: Public address announcer
Team: San Francisco Giants
Her credentials: She’s been the PA announcer for the Giants since AT&T Park opened in 2000 and is currently the only woman holding such a position in Major League Baseball (there have been three in history, according to espnW).
She grew up in the Bay Area rooting for the Giants and the A’s, and cites her father — San Francisco’s first black high school principal — as her role model. “My dad set the standard,” she told MLB.com in 2011.
Brooks-Moon is proud of the example she’s been able to set for young people, as well.
“I love all the great perks that come with this gig, but what is most important to me is that what I’m doing matters for generations to come, especially for young women,” she told espnW.
4. Ghazaleh “Oz” Sailors
Occupation: student
Twitter: @ozziesailors
Her credentials: She’s already breaking down barriers. Sailors is the only female NCAA baseball player, anchoring the pitching rotation at the University of Maine-Presque Isle. She’s not a gimmick, either. As a junior last year, she led the team in ERA and innings pitched, The Boston Globe reported.
An announcing career might be premature at this point, but the Santa Barbara, California, native said she wants to stick with baseball in one form or another for the rest of her life.
“I would absolutely love to be an announcer when I’m done playing,” she told Fusion. “That would be awesome. You get to wake up in the morning and watch baseball games.”
5. Lauren Shehadi
Covers: MLB
Company: MLB Network
Twitter: @LaurenShehadi
Her credentials: She’s one of the hosts of the network’s new morning show, MLB Central. The gig is a big deal: it’s the first program to broadcast out of the network’s new 8,000-foot studio.
Before this, she hosted MLB Network’s The Rundown and has served as a field reporter during live game broadcasts. She’s been known to rip lines drives on set.
6. Perry Barber
Covers: MLB
Company: professional umpire
Twitter: @perrybarber
Her credentials: Barber became a professional umpire in 1981 and is currently one of the longest-serving, active female umpires. She’s umpired games for Major League Baseball during spring training and still works more than 150 games a year, between spring training, college, high school, and other leagues.
She’s outspoken about the gender disparity among baseball announcers. “There’s no reason on earth why women wouldn’t make every bit as knowledgeable and entertaining announcers as any of the current crop of mostly white dudes,” she wrote in an email (referencing a Fusion article about the prevalence of “white dudes” in MLB announcing).
She’s served as an announcer for the Hudson Valley Renegades, a minor league affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, so she has experience. And no worries about her mastering the baseball trivia—she was a Jeopardy champion at the age of 19.
7. Christina Kahrl
Covers: MLB
Company: ESPN
Twitter: @ChristinaKahrl
Her credentials: Want someone who can tell a good anecdote but also understands sabermetrics? Kahrl, a co-founder of the analytical website Baseball Prospectus and an ESPN writer/editor, would be a good catch.
She’s also a vocal transgender activist and has spoken about how baseball eased her transition.
8. Susan Slusser
Covers: Oakland Athletics
Company: The San Francisco Chronicle
Twitter: @susanslusser
Her credentials: She’s been the A’s beat writer for 17 seasons and received glowing reviews from fans in a crowd-sourced guide by Deadspin.
Few reporters can claim to know a baseball team better. Don’t believe it? Listen to this story she reported about Yoenis Céspedes getting stranded on a small island in the Caribbean on their way from Cuba to the U.S.
9. Sam Ryan
Covers: MLB
Company: MLB Network
Twitter: @SamRyanMLB
Her credentials: She’s covered some high-profile games for the league, working as a field reporter during the MLB Network’s Showcase games, including playoff coverage. Before that, she served as the lead sports anchor for the CBS television affiliate in New York and CBS Sports.
And you have to give her credit for how she kept her cool during three rough interviews after a Milwaukee Brewers postseason win in 2011.
10. Heidi Watney
Covers: MLB
Company: MLB Network
Twitter: @HeidiWatney
Her credentials: Watney covered the Boston Red Sox from 2008 to 2011 before moving to the MLB Network, where she serves as a studio host and reporter.
Before leaving the Red Sox, she spoke to local radio announcers about trying to get interviews in a competitive sports-reporting environment.
Watney was runner up for Miss California in 2002, but when she joined the Sox in 2008, she told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette she didn’t want to be defined by that.“In California, I wasn’t really known as a former beauty queen,” she said. “It was just when I was hired here and someone heard that I had competed in a pageant. That wasn’t a huge part of my life.”
11. Alex Curry
Covers: Los Angeles Angeles
Company: FOX Sports West
Twitter: @Alex_Curry
Her credentials: Curry serves as a sideline reporter for the Angels and hosts a weekly baseball show Aside from baseball work, she also covers the Los Angeles Kings and has a wide portfolio in sports reporting.
Curry isn’t really your traditional MLB announcer—she’s done more field reporting—but she would bring personality to the booth.
Ted Hesson was formerly the immigration editor at Fusion, covering the issue from Washington, D.C. He also writes about drug laws and (occasionally) baseball. On the side: guitars, urban biking, and fiction.