MLB’s first all-female crew to call O’s game
When the Baltimore Orioles face the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night as part of the “MLB Game of the Week Live on YouTube,” history will be made.
The game will feature the sport’s first-ever all-female broadcast, with Orioles radio announcer Melanie Newman doing the playby-play. MLB.com reporter Sarah Langs will be beside Newman providing analysis, while Alanna Rizzo will be reporting from the field.
Heidi Watney and Lauren Gardner will serve as co-hosts for the pregame and postgame shows.
Though they are honored for the moment, it’s only a start.
“The fact that it is a historic event in 2021 shows you how much work we still have left to do,” Rizzo said.
Newman said they were not aware Tuesday’s game would be the first all-female broadcast until the news started making headlines. Their goal is to treat the game like any normal broadcast.
“While [it’s] great and you want to bring awareness,” said Newman, “you [also] want to connect with a little girl at home, who loves any sport or anything [else] where they don’t feel like they’re represented, for them to see that they can pursue these types of roles.
“But at the end of the day, we just want this to be a good-quality broadcast, setting gender aside and everything else that does not determine your ability to do a job.”
Newman, who joined Baltimore’s broadcast team last season, is the first woman in team history to be a play-by-play announcer. Before joining the Orioles, she served as the broadcaster for the High-A Salem Red Sox.
She is one of four active female broadcasters in Major League Baseball.
Rizzo, who currently works for MLB Network after spending seven seasons as a reporter for the Los Angeles Dodgers, wants the broadcast to be focused on baseball while showing that you can achieve anything no matter your race or gender.
“We all have taken very different
paths to get to where we are today,” said Rizzo, a seven-time Emmy Award winner. “While we all may end up with the same result, the path to get there is all very different.
“I think it’s so important for young women or even young men to understand that you can achieve that.”
Langs believes an all-female broadcast shouldn’t be a novelty but rather a weekly or even a normal occurrence.
“This, of course, should’ve happened a long time ago,” Langs stated. “The fact that this will be on display will help more young women who are interested and not just women, but anybody who is part of a minority group.”
Watney has been a regular host of MLB Network’s “Quick Pitch” since 2012. Before MLB Network, she served as a Boston Red Sox field reporter for the New England Sports Network.
Gardner worked for Altitude Sports Network on pregame and postgame shows for the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets before joining MLB Network in 2019.
When Gardner found out the Orioles-Rays game would be an entirely female broadcast, she described it as one of those pinch-me moments.
“For so long, we’ve been working to get to this point, and to see my name next to some superstars in the industry is surreal,” Gardner said.
“It’s important for young girls and young boys to know it’s normal for women to not only be in the broadcast booth, but in the studio, down on the sidelines, and they can speak to the sports [fans] with confidence and intelligence.”
The Orioles’ matchup against the Rays will be streamed on YouTube.com/MLB.
As the crew members prepare for the groundbreaking moment, they hope this will not be the last.
“The biggest compliment I can receive is somebody saying you’re my favorite broadcaster, not you’re my favorite female broadcaster,” Rizzo said.