Jeanne Zelasko got hooked on baseball when she was “a little peanut” writing letters to her father who was working in Asia, trying to impress him by slipping in the name of a major leaguer she had just watched on television.
“In my mind, that was the way to reach out to my dad,” said Zelasko, 42, who now is reaching out to the baseball gods - and the Los Angeles Dodgers - in hopes of becoming the first woman to do play-by-play in Major League Baseball.
A position became available when Charlie Steiner, who did 40 games a year on cable, had his role redefined. Fox, meanwhile, canceled the baseball pregame show she hosted with Kevin Kennedy due to the loss of advertising revenue.
“I love everybody I work with and would do it until I fell out of the chair, and I love sports,” she said. “But this is an interesting time for me as I try to figure out, ‘OK, what’s next?’ “There is an opening for the Dodgers . . . so I have been beating down their door a little bit.”
Zelasko said it is understandable that the Dodgers asked her if she ever had done baseball play-by-play - the answer is no - but she had that role for ice-skating and gymnastics competitions.
“But I’ve been around baseball for a very long time, and Kevin Kennedy, who should be managing somewhere, taught me more about that the game than I think most people could even consider. I was blessed to be next to him for eight years. So I’m excited. I don’t know if they’ll bite.”
I thought the better (?) half of Waldling was the first woman to do play-by-play. At least I think that’s what she was attempting.
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1. Flynn Posted: December 26, 2008 at 01:20 AM (#3038308)Any chance she can join him? I would actually rather listen to Sue Waldman than her.
nice.
Thanks, Larry...that's what I thought.
I believe she went to say that she wasn't cut out to do it (as opposed to what she's doing now...being Baggy Pants Moskowitz's straight woman) and wasn't comfortable with it.
and the following happened.
1. They played a taped interview she did with Ken Griffey, Jr. It was good.
2. After playing the interview, Kevin Kennedy and another host (Dibble I think)
talked about where Griffey might be traded to at the deadline. One mentioned
him going to the Cubs to be reinited with Lou Piniella. The other host said
that he thought Tampa Bay would be a good spot for Griffey, only an hour from
his home in Orlando, etc, etc.
3. Zelasko immediately replied in a snide tone, "You really think he'd go to a non-contender?"
The Rays were in first place in the AL East at the time (about a week before the July 31 trade deadline) and had
been all year but obviously Zelasko didn't know that and apparently thought they were still the sad sack Rays
who'd finished in last the previous few seasons.
That's insane. How much of a baseball fan does she have to be to know that the
Rays had turned things around and were in first place? Considering she has
a job in baseball it's incomprehensible to me that she didn't have a clue.
Suzyn Waldman, on the other hand, actually is a baseball fan. Just say no to
dumb broads like Zelasko getting jobs they don't deserve because they're female
and they're attractive. If I'm a Dodger fan I want to know that the play by play
person cares about the game every bit as much as I do.
I agree with that sentiment, but what is its relevance in this thread?
Ernie Harwell, for which she took a deserved pounding. (Although I wonder if it was really her fault; I can easily imagine some idiot director screaming into her earpiece: "Get off the old guy! GET THE F@CK OFF THE OLD GUY!!")
I'm still trying to understand what is attractive about Zelasko.
So am I. She's not terribly attractive, and not all that competent. But she's there now, and apparently FOX wants to keep her there. Whatever.
Nawm you're just not used to it. The idea of a woman calling games doesn't bother me. They just need to find a good one. Zelasko ain't it.
Now, I would love it if they let my girlfriend call a game. She both hates baseball and is perplexed by it. They could team her up with Tim McCarver and she could pepper him with questions like she does me. Why do they run so slow? Why are they so fat? Why don't they all show their socks like that one guy? It looks good that way. How many innings are there, again? Not 7? Why can't it be 7? Designated what? Don't the other guys think he's lazy?
I think she's good looking, though her nostrils are very distracting in an unpositive way. Add in her annoying banter and analysis and that should have kept her out of television sports, but...
I don't notice any kind of difference when I hear Pam Ward doing play-by-play. Of course, there's a case to be made that hers is not a standard woman's voice. But I think she's an example of a woman who's entirely adequate at broadcasting sporting events.
Edit: Just to clarify...by "standard" woman's voice, I mean that Ward's voice is considerably deeper than, say, Erin Andrews.
No. The reason this came up at all is because the Dodgers had an arrangement that went thusly:
• Games played west of the Rockies (inclusive of Colorado): Vin Scully on TV, Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday on radio.
• All other games: Charlie Steiner and Steve Lyons on TV, Rick Monday and Jerry Reuss on radio.
The Dodgers decided to simplify things on road games east of the Rockies, and have removed Steiner from their TV booth; he and Monday will now call games on radio for 162 games. However, that led to an absence on TV. So Zelasko is angling to call games on TV.
Pam Ward's been calling games on ESPN2 for years; at what point should I expect the high-pitched whine that accompanies every big play to become bearable?
This complaint isn't exclusive to women, by the way. Whenever he gets excited, Mike Tirico adopts an affectation similar to that of an 8-year-old doing play-by-play in the backyard. If Kornheiser's constant-harping-on-the-'narrative' style of color commentary hadn't already done it, Tirico's play-by-play would've convinced me to go to bed early on Mondays.
edit: I don't notice any kind of difference when I hear Pam Ward doing play-by-play. Of course, there's a case to be made that hers is not a standard woman's voice. But I think she's an example of a woman who's entirely adequate at broadcasting sporting events.
I would agree for, like, 90% of a game. When she's calling a 3-yard run in the first quarter, there's no problem, but when somebody converts 4th-and-7 to keep a game-saving drive going, you absolutely can't help but notice her voice.
Single, huh?
This complaint isn't exclusive to women, by the way. Whenever he gets excited, Mike Tirico adopts an affectation similar to that of an 8-year-old doing play-by-play in the backyard. If Kornheiser's constant-harping-on-the-'narrative' style of color commentary hadn't already done it, Tirico's play-by-play would've convinced me to go to bed early on Mondays.
I haven't watched an ESPN football telecast in years. ESPN has a gift for finding the most annoying announcers possible for the NFL games. It's uncanny.
Leroy, I hate to throw around labels. I don't think you're a misogynist. But I think you're incorrect.
Wouldn't a misogynist make a post just like yours above?
When the high-pitched whine is a common occurrence, not a rare exception. I think we're all surprisingly conservative in our preferences in sports coverage - people in the TV industry talk about the fact that they can't try anything different because they get thousands of angry letters when a single, comforting event in the coverage is different. Think about how you feel when the entity covering an MLB game - by mistake or on purpose - doesn't use the center-field camera for a single pitch. I have friends who complain that NESN doesn't put the scoreboard in the upper left-hand corner nearly enough. I think baseball, in particular, thrives on that "comfortable old shoe" feeling that it can inspire. It's tough for new anythings - new ideas, new people - to break into it and do something different.
Would you really argue that random woman #1 is not as potentially good as Michael Kay?
it would be inappropriate to say "Oh honey, I guess you haven't noticed the Rays are contenders
this year. You must have too busy fixing your makeup."
It's not often Dibble gets to sit there in shock at someone else's stupidity. Good for him!
That may be true, Justin. I don't watch her show that frequently to say you're right or wrong.
*Kevin Eubanks laughs regardless*
Wah! Why does everyone think she's attractive? Do I have this completely wrong?
I just googled her. I think I can walk into just about any Starbuck's in Manhattan right this second and see a better looking woman.
I've mentioned this about five dozen times, but I think that women who do traditionally "male" stuff like sports announcing or mythbusting are zanily overrated in attractiveness.
I didn't say she was movie-star beautiful or that she was a head turner. I just think she's above the average line, that's all.
Discuss.
Chin music indeed.
Hallelujah
If it took a recession for this to happen, it just goes to show God works in mysterious ways.
Cary or Cara or whatever her name is isn't all that physically attractive, but she does have an appealing on-camera persona. But that biker chick from the first season was just flat-out scary.
It's not saying much, but I would take Zelasko over Thom Brenemman.
Unfortunately I am familiar - I'm a Yankee fan.
Is Pam Ward the woman that does college football on ESPN? Whoever it is, it's unwatchable.
Leroy, I hate to throw around labels. I don't think you're a misogynist. But I think you're incorrect.
Wouldn't a misogynist make a post just like yours above?
They'd might. But that's got nothing to do with me. To me, the most important aspect of being a sports broadcaster (at least the 2 sports I care about) is a good voice - a man's voice. Is it misogynist to think a feminine voice wouldn't be right for Darth Vader?
True that. So maybe it should be amended that being beautiful makes up for some combination of incurious and/or blind stupid.
That's because 98% of us are straight men.
And I bet if we started a thread on Grady Sizemore we'd get at least one post talking about his looks.
And I bet if we started a thread on Grady Sizemore we'd get at least one post talking about his looks.
- oh honey you most DEFINITELY would
because that boy look good enough to eat
or at least nibble on
Madison Obamagarner (Flynn) Posted: December 26, 2008 at 09:54 PM (#3038715)
Or David Wright.
- shrug
whatever
Sidney Ponson's Sweaty Nipple-Boner Posted: December 26, 2008 at 10:11 PM (#3038725)
Or that Brad Ausmus--
- oh yesss
YESSSSSSSS
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!
that boy is so incredibly smoking hot i would watch him if he was doing play by play on something unspeakably boring like golf or soccer or nascar or NFL. he could talk too and that would be ok
regfairfield Posted: December 26, 2008 at 10:36 PM (#3038732)
But...she's a girl.
- and how
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