In our next interview for the Women in Baseball series, we talk to Amber Theoharis, Sideline Reporter for the Baltimore Orioles.

With a bubbly personality and a passion for sports, Amber Theoharis is one of the region’s rising stars.  The Maryland native who spent her childhood summer nights cheering on her favorite player, Cal Ripken Jr, still feels blessed to spend night after night at ballparks around the country as a professional, accomplished sports journalist.

As a kid, Theoharis watched the Orioles all summer long.  Just as the hot summer day would cool off, her father would bring the television out onto their screened in porch.  Together, with a bag of peanuts, they talked baseball.  Her father coached Babe Ruth League baseball, and when he was busy teaching young men how to play, Amber and her sister learned, observed, played and fell in love with the game. 

Theoharis attended the University of Maryland and majored in Journalism, but had already completed internships with The George Michael Sports Machine and the Mary Matalin Show before she graduated.  She also served as a production assistant with ABC in Washington (WJLA).  General news reporting took Amber to Salsbury, MD and then to Long Island, NY to do live-breaking news for the 5 o’clock broadcast.

“That’s when I kind of had the epiphany of ‘alright…I’m not doing what I want to do.  I’m in the number one market, on the number one newscast.  I really have to do what I want to do.’  So I just jumped into sports….I took a pay cut, went down in market size about 30 markets just to have a chance to do sports cause I wanted to do it.  And I loved it.”

Amber took a job as a weekend sports anchor in Columbus, OH at WSYX covering Buckeyes football.  After a year and a half in Ohio, Fox 45 in Baltimore brought Amber back to the region as a sportscaster.  While at Fox, she won an Emmy, Maryland Sportscaster of the Year and several AP awards.  Gradually, Amber began freelance work with MASN for Ravens Xtra and before she knew it, she was the full-time Orioles sideline reporter.  She also started her own radio show, the A-List, and began writing for Press Box. 

All of those activities obviously keep Amber very busy.  She spends much of her day doing research before heading out to the park in the early afternoon.  Once she’s there, she plans and conducts pre-game interviews, and then throughout the game she does in-game reports.  When it’s over, she also conducts post-game interviews.  During the off-season, she’s busy researching all sports, planning stories, calling sources in other cities about trade rumors and securing guests for her radio show. 

For Amber, covering baseball, and her hometown team, is truly a dream come true, despite its grueling pace.  “You’re watching a sport for a living and talking about it, which I would be doing if I didn’t work in sports.  I would be going to the game and talking about it the next day.  So I truly get paid to do what I really, really love and what I really enjoy doing.  Sometimes I sit at the park and I’m right next to the dugout.  I’m thinking, ‘this isn’t real.  This is my life?’  I’m really blessed.”

Blessed as she may be, her path has not been without challenges.  But at her young age, Theoharis has already learned to turn those moments into learning experiences.  Amber recalls vividly an incident where her bubbly personality was misconstrued as flirting, prompting her to question how to be polite and still get respect in the industry.  “It’s a misconception of most men that aren’t used to women being there for a purpose that is non-sexual.  And they have trouble understanding that…Smiling is misinterpreted.  Being kind, or nice, or polite is misinterpreted.”

Though Amber spends every second of her day immersed in baseball, she has also faced the challenge of proving herself to a male audience, a demographic quick to point out any and every mistake. 

“Men make mistakes on the radio or on television all the time.  If Buster Olney makes a mistake, it’s ‘he didn’t get enough sleep last night,’ or ‘he’s having a bad day’ or ‘I knew what he meant.’  If a woman makes an even smaller mistake, it’s ‘oh she’s dumb, she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.  See, see, see that’s why women shouldn’t be on.’  There’s no margin of error when you’re a woman. You actually have to work harder than a man.  I’ve always believed that.  You have to know more and work harder because people are so willing to jump down your throat if you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

But Amber certainly knows what she’s talking about and she’s not about to let anyone bring her down.  A baseball fan through and through, Amber is “a true baseball purist,” through steroids, scandals and the challenges she’s faced.  “I still just think it is one of the most pure things left in America.  You can sit down with your grandfather and talk about players that he watched play and you still know about them today.  History is carried on in baseball through the generations.  The sport somehow does a good job of keeping past heroes and players alive.  You know, it’s because it is a game of numbers, it’s constantly compared to the numbers of the past.”

While heroes of yesterday like Cal Ripken Jr. have left an impression on Amber, so too have the stars of today.   After working in the field, Theoharis has learned an important distinction. “There’s a difference between being a good baseball player and a good person.”  Some players, like Kevin Millar, have earned Amber’s respect for their conduct on and off the field.  She also admires Derek Jeter.  For him “to be that consistent, for that long and that poised and that clutch, and still be nice to people…under the microscope that is the New York media…I’m in awe of that.”

Theoharis has interviewed Jeter a number of times, as a reporter in the American League East, and as you might guess, she doesn’t think there’s a better division in all of baseball.  “It doesn’t get more talented, more high-stakes than that,” and of course, her belief reflects a strong endorsement of the designated hitter, a position that gives “players that are the true sluggers of the game a chance to play longer.”  After all, she says, “pitchers are such a specialty.  They should just go out there and pitch.”

Amber could talk about control, location and velocity, maple and ash bats, superstitions, heroes and home runs for hours.  She only wishes more women would do the same.

“Women are scared to talk about sports because they are told they don’t know anything about it.  That drives me crazy.  You’re trained to be passive and not to speak up when you think you know something about baseball.  You’re so scared you’re going to say something wrong and then really look like an idiot.”

Amber questions whether baseball has done enough to bring women into the game.  She applauds the efforts of the Baltimore Ravens.  Their annual Football 101 program teaches women about the game, taking them onto the field and into the locker room.  The ladies are treated to seminars by women in the industry, like Amber herself.  After learning more about the game, female fans are more likely to feel like they know enough to participate in the discussion. 

“Have confidence.  Don’t let people tell you who you are.  Don’t live up to others’ low expectations of you.  Especially in sports, nobody expects anything from you because they don’t expect you to succeed.  So, just don’t believe that.  You know who you are.  You know what you know.  Do your homework.  Read.  Your biggest weapon is knowledge.  If you’re prepared and you know what you’re talking about people can’t pigeon-hole you.”

For Amber, nothing is important than knowing who you are and being yourself. 

“I was told to change my name.  I was told to cut my hair.  I was told to wear sports bras so that my boobs didn’t show. I was told to do a lot of things to make me not who I am.  And they wanted me to be everything but who I really was.  And it was such a relief when finally one day, I thought, I’m not going to try to look different.  I’m going to be armed with knowledge and do my research and do my homework, and force people to listen to me.  You have to be loud.  You have to be bold and you have to be not scared to fail.  Cause you will. Sometimes you’re wrong.  And you’re like, ‘so what I was wrong.  Why am I not allowed to be wrong?  Cause I’m a woman?’  You need to get over it and not kick yourself.  So, I think that’s what it is.  Just be confident.”

There’s no greater advice for young women, except maybe the words she received from one of her mentors, Mary Matalin.  Amber was young when she worked for Matalin, but even then her politics didn’t align with the famous Republican strategist.   Once, on air, Matalin asked Amber what she thought on a particular topic and Amber was frightened to disagree. 

“I remember she said to me, Amber, I don’t care if I agree with you or I disagree with you, you make somebody angry or you make somebody happy.  Just as long as it’s your own thought, I will always respect you. Come up with your own thought.  And stand by it.  As long as it’s your own, it’s never going to be wrong.  Don’t try to say what other people think you should say and don’t be scared to offend people.”

Matalin, a strong woman in her own right, inspired Theoharis then and continues to inspire her today.  Another mentor, Carol Costello, currently at CNN, encouraged Amber to define her own course in an industry that makes it very difficult to do so.

“Some people tell you as a woman you can’t have kids or get married if you want to be successful.  No, damn it.  I want to do it.  If I want to do that, I’m going to make that decision.  Carol taught me that I have choices in everything in life.  You can have a life and you can still be happy.  People told me I would never come back and work in my hometown.  Baltimore’s too big of a market.  You’ll never succeed.  I came back at 26.  You know, that was only six or seven years after I started.  I moved around the country, but I came back.”

And we’re lucky she did.  You can watch Amber on MASN’s Orioles broadcasts, read her column, The Broad Side, at Press Box and her blog on MASN’s website, and listen to her radio show, The A List, on 105.7 FM in Baltimore.  You can also support the cause that’s closest to Amber’s heart, the Walk for Hope.  We thank Amber for taking time out of her very busy schedule to meet with us. 

Note:  The Washington Nationals are conducting a Baseball 101 event this weekend, similar to the Ravens’ event mentioned by Amber.  It’s a great opportunity for women to learn more about the game right from the coaches.  

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Interviews, Women in Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.