MLB History: All-Woman Crew to Call Orioles-Rays Tuesday

Major League Baseball will make history Tuesday night as the Orioles’ matchup against the Rays will be broadcast by an all-woman crew

Major League Baseball will make sportscasting history on Tuesday with the Baltimore Orioles game against the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg featuring an all-woman broadcasting crew for the very first time.

The historic event will be broadcasted as the MLB Game of the Week on YouTube.

Melanie Newman, broadcaster for the Baltimore Orioles, will provide the play-by-play. MLB Network’s Alanna Rizzo will report from the field. MLB.com writer Sarah Langs will provide analysis of the game. Pre and post-game duties will be provided by MLB Network hosts/reporters Lauren Gardner and Heidi Watney.

As the barrier continues to shrink for women in sports, this broadcast is a reminder that the blockade should be nonexistent. All five women are hosting because they love and understand the game of baseball.

Newman looks forward to the day when this is not breaking news.

“I can’t even put it into words,” Newman told Savannah McCann of MLB.com. “It’s been really stressful. I’m going to be fully transparent. … You get used to it, in a way of hearing that tag. You focus on the big picture and hoping that this is opening people’s minds, past looking at genders in terms of qualifications for jobs … that it’s not a novelty act.

While women continue to shatter the glass ceiling, this broadcast will provide young girls with optimism about where sports are going. Watney wants everyone to know that this should be normalized.

“That’s important for not just little girls to see, but little boys to see that it’s normal, it doesn’t matter your gender,” Watney told MLB.com. “It matters that you’re passionate and [have] love for the sport, and your knowledge and your understanding of the sport. It’s important, but for me, it’s going to be another day at work. It’s prepping for the Rays and O’s.”

Women in sports were once considered a ‘curveball.’ This crew will certainly knock it out of the park.