Orioles-Rays game will make MLB history with all-female broadcast team, in-studio hosts
Five women will make history next week when they become the first all-female on-air broadcast crew to call an MLB game. The group will call Tuesday’s MLB Game of the Week Live on YouTube between the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg, Florida, the New York Times reported.
The Salem Red Sox made history in 2019 with the first all-female broadcasting crew and there are female broadcasters both in radio and TV throughout the minor and major league ranks. But never before has a group done it at the major league level.
Melanie Newman, who was a part of that Salem crew with Suzie Cool, will call the game. She has been the Orioles radio play-by-play announcer since last season, when she became the first woman in the role in franchise history. She’s joined in the booth by analyst Sarah Langs, a baseball analyst and writer for MLB.com.
Alanna Rizzo, who is of Cuban descent and speaks Spanish, will do on-field reporting.
“It can’t help but feel different,” Rizzo told the New York Times. “I’ve always had a male play-by-play voice in my ear during every game I’ve ever done. So, to do a game where those voices are Melanie and Sarah, that will be a unique feeling and a unique perspective of the game. It’s exciting to be a part of something like this.”
Heidi Watney and Lauren Gardner will anchor the pre- and postgame shows.
