05-08-2025
NESN's all-female broadcast booth ready for Tuesday's Red Sox game: ‘Once the first pitch is thrown, we just do our job'
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
In other words, she's there to do her job. Just like Tiedemann.
Advertisement
These women get it: This particular iteration of their professional life is noteworthy. It is the first all-female broadcast team and all-female broadcast booth for a complete game in Red Sox history, a crew specifically hired by NESN for Women's Celebration Night at Fenway Park that includes Kasey Hudson at field level, Natalie Noury and Jen McCaffrey in the studio, and Amy Kaplan and Anna Gregoire in producer roles. But for all of them, the 'job' part is what matters most.
Advertisement
'It's exciting and some may think it's unique, but for us, if you look at our résumés collectively, we have decades of experience, and once the first pitch is thrown, we just do our job,' Rizzo said. 'Emma's calling the game, I'm doing my tidbits. We love the game, we do the work, and it's important to recognize that we appreciate the opportunity.
'But I can't wait till it's not a big deal anymore.'
Ditto for Tiedemann, whose first foray into calling a game came by the side of her grandfather, Texas sportscaster Bill Mercer, but was honed by hard work, beginning with a post-college job doing play-by-play for the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaskan summer league to her current job calling games for the Portland Sea Dogs, the Red Sox' Double A affiliate.
'I started loving all sports as a little girl, but I really came to love baseball through play-by-play and calling games every day for a season up in Alaska, that's how I fell in love with the sport itself, learning from players, learning about the art of broadcasting,' she said. 'The groundbreaking stuff has come along with it, but the forefront for me is putting on a headset.'
Emma Tiedemann has been the radio play-by-play voice of the Portland Sea Dogs since 2021.
Jim Davis/Globe Staff
She's right. But for now, we still mark, notice, and celebrate nights such as this, because they are what make the vision of a different, less-notable future seem possible, perhaps even inevitable. Only with intentionality such as NESN is showing here, efforts such as their Women of NESN initiative to broaden opportunity for those long shut out from this male-dominated field, are new habits formed. Habits where viewers and/or listeners don't judge by the sound of the voice they hear, but by what they are saying instead.
Advertisement
'I'm a sucker for a pitchers' duel,' Tiedemann said. 'I love that game of chess, the pitcher having to adjust on the mound. On the Double A level [in Portland], pitching seems to take a leap, seeing a guy work the second or third time through the lineup, leaning on the fastball the first time through, the curveball the second time through. I love pitching.
'But we also have been very fortunate with Ceddanne Rafaela's defense, seen multiple home run-robbing catches. He's the only player that has changed the way I call fly balls to center field, where I've had to adjust to a player's defense. Balls that were doubles for most players, Ceddanne was making catches. He made me fall in love with that first step on a fly ball.'
For Rizzo, 'it's more about the storytelling and relationships of players. I'm drawn to finding out what makes this person unique off the field, to take viewers someplace they're not allowed to go. Yes, they're millionaires who make a lot of money, but they're humans, not robots, and I love the human interest side of things. There are only 780 people that start on a major league roster every season — they are one of the 1 percent. It's difficult to do what these guys do and that's more of what draws me to the sport, the storytelling, being the liaison between the players on the field and the fans at home.'
Advertisement
That path, from the ballpark to your living room, is the one that drives them most. But another path, from those who've gone before them to those who dream of following in their footsteps, that one matters so much, too.
Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
