The Boston Red Sox wrote history on Tuesday evening when the first All-women broadcasting team announced the game in Fenway Park as part of the team’s celebration evening.
Emma Tiedemann played with Play, while Alanna Rizzo was the color analyst. Kasey Hudson was the Sideline reporter, while Natalie Noury anchored the studio show with analyst Jen McCaffrey.
Tiedemann, who usually works as the Play-by-Play broadcaster for Red Sox Double-A-Team in Portland, told Huffpost that she is used to conversations about her gender.
“I hope we don’t have to talk about it anymore in the very near future,” she said. “We don’t have to make this one-season party game, because hopefully more and more women will play full-time roles in the future. And this will not be the story of a match on a Tuesday evening. It will eventually just be baseball.”
Although this is the first all-women employment crew of Red Sox, MLB wrote history for the same in 2021 When an all-women broadcasting team announced a match between the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles. Rizzo, who did not respond to Huffpost’s request for comment, was part of that crew of 2021 and she told MLB.com that she has her own style to be a color analyst.
“I am not becoming Lou Merloni. I am not becoming Will Middlebroks,” Rizzo told the site. “That is not who I am. I am not going to break down a pitch sequences and things like that. I mean, that is more of what Emma does. I have more of a human element and a narrative side. I have treated the game for decades, but never in this role.”
The All-women broadcasting team was a one-night only event for the Red Sox, but Tiedemann said that she works “really, very difficult” to finally work full-time in the big competitions. She said she was looking up to Jenny Cavnar, one of the few female play-by-play broadcaster in the MLB.
The announcement of a Major League match was different than when she announced in the small competitions. With access to more statistics and information, Tiedemann said that it was a ‘game changer’. Moreover, she did not have to draw Tarp, something she has the assignment to do as part of her work in the minors.
“Ten years I have done that and I finally get the big competitions,” she said laughing. “Last night was great.”
Only a few hours after the Red Sox had written history, The MLB announced that Jen PaWol The first wife of the competition that referee is a Major League match when she makes her debut on Saturday when the Miami Marlins are confronted with the Atlanta Braves. Although the NFL and NBA have had female referees in the past, this marks the first time that a woman has buried an MLB game.
Tiedemann told Huffpost that she knew PaWol since Tiedemann worked as the Play-by-Play broadcaster for the Lexington Legends, which is part of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, and PaWol was a referee.
“We date back to single-a baseball when [Pawol] Was the only female referee in baseball at that time, “Tiedemann told Huffpost. “Women pay attention to each other, so when she came through Lexington, I actually filled the dressing room with some more feminine options for shampoo and soap and some female touch. So we’ve kept in touch since.”
