South Florida teams setting bar in this area. Marlins add announcer; NFL TV changes coming
A six-pack of media notes on a Thursday:
▪ It’s good to see more women getting prominent, important jobs in South Florida sports.
Last fall, Kim Ng was hired by the Marlins and became the first female general manager in MLB history.
Last week, the Dolphins hired former Patriots communications representative Anne Noland as senior director of football communications. She will run the department that works with the media.
Noland becomes the third woman who currently runs an NFL communications department, joining Amy Palcic in Jacksonville and Emily Parker in Cincinnati.
NBC 6’s Ruthie Polinsky is the market’s first weeknight sports anchor this century. (She shares that role with Jorge Andres.)
Meanwhile, Kelly Saco is joining a very limited number of women calling MLB games on radio. She’s working several spring training games and will be in the booth for four homestands this season.
The Marlins are using Saco, Gaby Sanchez and J.P. Arencibia as analysts alongside either Dave Van Horne or Glenn Geffner on radio this season (WINZ-940 locally).
Saco — who has worked as a sideline reporter on Marlins games and also been involved on Fox Sports Florida’s Panthers coverage — said she’s “super excited” about the new gig.
“It means a lot to me that women are getting more of these opportunities,” she said. “I have an incredible amount of respect and appreciation for all those who have come before me. With that being said, I have never really felt like a woman working in a man’s sport. I always felt like I fit in and I belong; my gender has never been anything that has stood out to me.”
The dean of women MLB radio announcers is Suzy Waldman, who has called New York Yankees games alongside John Sterling since 2005. Betty Caywood, who worked Kansas City Athletics games on radio in 1967, was believed to be the first woman in an MLB booth.
Saco was a standout softball player at Miami Palmetto, helping lead the Panthers to a state title in 2008. She played softball for four years at Syracuse while studying broadcasting there.
“I hope to humanize these guys and tell their stories while also talking about the game that I love,” she said.
The Marlins are moving away from the approach the franchise has always used on radio -- two trained play-by-play announcers splitting innings and no natural analyst in the booth. As a result, Geffner and Van Horne will share the 162 games, with Geffner working about two-thirds of them.
Marlins communications chief Jason Latimer explained the decision this way: “When we made the decision to add the analyst voice to our radio broadcasts for this season, we wanted to bring our listeners closer to the game and break down what the players may be thinking or how they’re reacting on the field.”
Saco, he said, “is able to share her unique perspective with vast experience and success on the field as well as being a seasoned on-air talent.”
Latimer said she will offer “in-depth conversations along with a breakdown of the intricacies of the game and insight about Marlins players. She also knows the South Florida community and its passion for baseball, and always makes an instant connection with fans.”
▪ A Fox executive confirmed publicly last week that the network likely will relinquish its Thursday night NFL package during the next round of TV contracts, which are expected to be finalized and announced sometime in March or April.
The CBS/Fox/NBC contracts runs through 2022, meaning Thursday games would remain on Fox for the next two seasons.
Amazon Prime (streaming) reportedly is the front-runner to secure Thursday night rights beginning in 2023. At least some, if not all, Thursday night games are expected to continue to be carried on NFL Network.
Fox is expected to keep its Sunday NFC package, with CBS retaining the AFC package. NBC will keep Sunday night games, and ESPN will retain “Monday Night Football,” with more games being simulcast on ABC, which will join the Super Bowl rotation. But the NFL has said the deals are not done.
▪ According to Sports Business Journal, the NFL is targeting the second week in May for the release of the NFL schedule, which has traditionally been announced in mid-April, at least pre-pandemic.
One reason for the delay: The NFL hasn’t officially approved the addition of a 17th regular-season game for each team next season.
▪ Two big changes in NCAA Tournament coverage you will notice next week:
The First Four games — usually held on Tuesday and Wednesday nights — will instead be played on Thursday night.
And the first “weekend” of the tournament will run Friday through Monday instead of Thursday through Sunday.
All games will be played in arenas in Indianapolis because of the pandemic.
Also, the Sweet 16/Elite 8 round will be held on a Saturday through Tuesday instead of the traditional Thursday through Sunday.
CBS and Turner will use 10 announcing teams instead of the usual eight because of COVID-19-related protocols. TNT NBA analysts Reggie Miller and Chris Webber will no longer work the NCAA Tournament.
▪ ESPN will use Mike Greenberg as its NFL draft host; he replaces Trey Wingo, whose contract wasn’t renewed. The ubiquitous Greenberg hosts ESPN’s two-hour studio show “Get Up,” on weekday mornings, then hosts a two-hour national radio show in early afternoons.
Rece Davis will anchor ABC’s coverage of the draft, which features more human interest stories than ESPN’s traditional rinse-and-repeat, pick-and-reaction coverage.
And speaking of Wingo, he joined the upstart, 26-month-old Pro Football Network, a media company founded by Bristol, Connecticut-based communications director and self-proclaimed Dolphins fan Matt Cannata, who has assembled a 10-person staff also featuring respected draft analyst Tony Pauline.
Wingo will bring the company its most well-known talent, a name recognizable to the vast majority of ESPN viewers. ESPN no longer had a role for Wingo after he expressed a preference to stop doing morning radio.
He will host his own show during the season and co-host a weekly draft show with Pauline from February through the draft on PFN’s YouTube Channel. He also will be an equity partner and brand ambassador.
Wingo was clever and animated on the network’s Monday NFL highlights show; as far as narrating highlights from a studio, I would rank him in the top half dozen or so all time ESPNers, behind Chris Berman but on par with Keith Olbermann, Dan Patrick, Kenny Mayne, Craig Kilborn and the late Tom Mees.
▪ Quick stuff: ESPN is back in the NHL business for the first time since 2004. ABC and ESPN will combine to carry four of the next seven Stanley Cup Finals beginning next season, with a package of 25 regular-season games available on ABC or ESPN, 1,000-plus games streaming on ESPN Plus and 75 national regular-season games produced by ESPN that will stream exclusively on both ESPN Plus and Hulu.
NBC, which is shutting down NBC-SN at the end of the year, is in the mix for the other half of the NHL package...
Good for new Cubs — and former Marlins announcer -—Jon Sciambi for announcing, during his Cubs TV debut, that he will not conceal information from viewers — such as an in-progress no hitter — “because of some silly superstition.” Every announcer should take that approach. Sciambi, incidentally, will continue to call baseball and college basketball for ESPN.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 3:35 PM.
