2021 Ballpark Digest Awards season continues with a chat with the Baltimore Orioles' Melanie Newman, our MLB broadcaster of the year! In this episode we discuss Newman's history-making career in MLB and MiLB broadcasting as well as reporting on other sports.
Her background includes work both as a sideline reporter for Fox Sports Southwest and play-by-play announcer for the Frisco RoughRiders and the Salem Red Sox. Along the way she made some history when she teamed up with Suzie Cool to form the first all-female broadcast team in professional baseball on a Salem Red Sox broadcast in 2019.
She then was part of two more important events in 2021, become part of the first all-female crew to call an MLB game, as she called the action with Sarah Langs, Alanna Rizzo, Heidi Watney and Lauren Gardner on a YouTube broadcast on July 21. She followed that up by teaming up with analyst Jessica Mendoza to call a game on ESPN on Sept. 29.
Joining the Baltimore Orioles for the 2020 season, she has yet to experience what anyone would call a "normal" season: she made her O's debut on August 4, 2020, and in 2021 she called all the Orioles games--but called many of them at home when the team was on the road.
Jesse Goldberg-Strassler is Voice of the Lansing Lugnuts and author of The Baseball Thesaurus and the upcoming second edition of The Football Thesaurus, both from August Publications. Kevin Reichard is editor of Ballpark Digest and founder/publisher at August Publications.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.