Cavnar to become first female primary play-by-play voice
Smoky Hill High, CSU graduate spent 12 seasons on Colorado broadcasts
Jenny Cavnar is making Major League Baseball history — again.
Cavnar, a longtime member of the Rockies’ TV broadcast team, is leaving the organization to become the playby-play announcer for the Oakland Athletics. The move makes the Smoky Hill High School and CSU alum the first female primary play-by-play voice in MLB history.
Prior to Tuesday’s announcement by NBC Sports California, Cavnar spent 12 years with the Rockies. During that time, she served on the broadcast in various capacities while emerging as a trailblazer for female sportscasters.
“I’m really excited, but it’s bittersweet, too,” Cavnar said. “Colorado is home and the Rockies gave me an amazing decade. The Rockies gave me amazing opportunities and I’m so grateful. I’m so grateful to (producer) Alison Vigil for pushing me in this direction. And I’m thankful to all of the guys (on the broadcast team) — (Ryan Spilborghs), Cory (Sullivan), Jeff (Huson) and Drew (Goodman) — for giving me their help in making this an attainable dream.”
In 2015, Cavnar became the first woman to do radio color commentary for a National League game when she was in the KOA 850 booth for a Rockies game against the Diamondbacks in Phoenix.
Three years later, she became the first woman since 1993 to do playby-play for a big-league TV broadcast when she called a Rockies-padres game at Coors Field.
Then in 2021, Cavnar became the first woman to be named Colorado Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sports Media Association.
After interviewing with the A’s and auditioning for them during winter meetings, Cavnar will start next week in Oakland, but will keep her home in Colorado. Her husband, Steve Spurgen, is a Denver firefighter and the couple has two young kids.
Cavnar, the daughter of Colorado High School Baseball Hall of Fame coach Steve Cavnar, has seen her national profile rise over the past few years while also taking on more play-by-play jobs outside of baseball. She routinely hosts and contributes to shows on MLB Network Radio, and also did play-by-play for men’s and women’s college basketball on FS1 and Pac-12 Networks.
The A’s will play their 2024 season at the Oakland Coliseum before a planned relocation to Las Vegas. Before that move becomes official in 2028, when a stadium in Las Vegas is expected to be ready, the franchise’s location will be in limbo for the 2025-27 seasons.
For now, Cavnar isn’t worried about all those moving pieces. She’s “just excited for the opportunity to call games.”
“There is, obviously, a lot of things happening off the field with the franchise that are so out of everyone’s control,” Cavnar said. “I’m just excited to dive into the team that they have on the field and the stories that are there to be told.”
With Cavnar’s departure, the Rockies’ broadcast team has a major hole to fill. Spring training begins this week with pitchers and catchers reporting to Salt River Fields in Arizona, but the club has still yet to announce its TV broadcast plans for 2024.