The next interview in our Women in Baseball series features author Jane Heller and discusses her new book Confessions of a She-Fan.

Baseball is a game of statistics and athleticism, but for most female fans, the game also comes with some emotional strings attached. For novelist Jane Heller, a lifelong baseball fan, the game and her devotion to the New York Yankees had the ability to change the very balance of her daily life. “I was the kind of fan that was taking every loss with me the rest of the day, like if the Yankees won I felt good about the day. If the Yankees lost, I would be depressed the rest of the day, it was ridiculous.” After last summer’s depressing debacle here in Washington, we can relate.

Or can we… It was the Yankees…in fact, the Damn Yankees, who were always squashing the Washington Senators’ “heart.” Why the Yankees?

Well, Jane was born and raised outside of New York in Westchester County, so being a Yankee fan was in her blood. When Jane was just six years old her father died after a battle with brain cancer. To provide paternal influence, her two grandfathers would come over to the house on Sundays to watch Yankee baseball. Her grandfathers taught Jane and her older sister about the game and how to keep score. From that point forward, the Yankees became an important part of Jane’s life. Watching baseball with her two grandfathers helped to transform the melancholy atmosphere in her childhood home.

“I didn’t know what they were talking about. I didn’t know what a bunt was or an RBI. I didn’t know anything. I just learned this whole new language as I sat there scoring — everybody laughed and suddenly my house was cheerful instead of depressing and sad.”

Combine that formative experience with 26 World Championships and some of the greatest baseball legends, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and you get a die-hard Yankee “she-fan.” “When the Yankees win their excellence rubs off on me; it’s a feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself.”

Her love of the Yankees grew stronger as she got older, always taking on new forms. “I have wonderful memories about going to the stadium with my buddies in high school and I once caught a foul ball hit by Elston Howard, who was a Yankee catcher.” Like many young female baseball fans, she inevitably explored the stage where her baseball heroes became larger than life.

“I had this crush on Mickey Mantle who was old enough to be my father. I had his picture in my wallet and I would tell people that I was going to marry Mickey Mantle. Never mind that he was already married and never mind that I would never get to meet him; it was just, you know, a crush.”

After high school, Jane attended the University of Rochester, followed by graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School of Communications, all with the goal of becoming a sports writer, sports broadcaster, “a sports anything, I just wanted to work in baseball.” Women were not widely represented in professional sports in the 1970’s, but Jane was “blissfully ignorant of all that.” She contacted Michael Burke, the owner of the Yankees, who had also attended the University of Pennsylvania. He wrote her back with a hand-written letter offering to set up an interview in Media Relations with Bob Fishel.

The administrative position would have required Jane to assemble press clippings each day, but before the internet had made that task more reasonable.

“I was all huffy like I just came from graduate school getting my Masters. I can do better than this! I laugh now because if I had taken that job maybe I could have come up through the ranks, paid my dues and learned the business. Look at Brian Cashman, he started as an intern and now he is a GM. So anyway you never know, but I thought I was too good for that job.”

Another baseball related opportunity arose. The Commissioner’s Office wanted to start a public relations campaign to try to make baseball more attractive to young men, “sort of like the Army has the Uncle Sam “I want you” thing.” Jane waited and waited, but the position never came about.

Jane abandoned the pursuit of a career in baseball and instead became the assistant to the Publicity Director at a publishing house. After ten years of working her way up, Jane was eventually named Vice President of Advertising, Promotion and Publicity, the first woman VP under 30. “I had this big fancy corner office, and lots of people reporting to me, but I hated being the boss. It was just so boring, so I quit.” She ended up writing her first novel, Cha Cha Cha, which was released in 1994.

Thirteen novels later, in May of 2007, Jane sat in her Santa Barbara home, tuned in to the Yankees with her Extra Innings package. The 18-24 Yankees had a string of losses that week, culminating with a particularly difficult one to the New York Mets.

“I got up from the living room and the TV and I said to my husband, ‘That’s it, I’m divorcing the Yankees.’ He started laughing and I said ‘I’m divorcing them on the grounds of mental cruelty, because they are breaking my heart.’ Then I did what writers do, I sat down at my computer and I just wrote this piece. I didn’t really think about what I was doing. I just started writing about how my relationship with the team felt like a romantic relationship, you know with the heartbreak and the expectation and the betrayal.”

By Andy Rash for the New York Times
On her desk sat a copy of the New York Times, open to a column by sports writer Harvey Araton. Figuring she had nothing to lose, Jane e-mailed him the piece. The next thing she knew, Tom Jolly, the Editor of the Sports section at the Times e-mailed back that he thought the piece was funny. “Unless the Yankees go on a winning streak the rest of the week, we’ll run it on Sunday.”The piece, “To Love and to Cherish for All Eternity, or Not” ran on Sunday, May 27, 2007. Jane’s e-mail box flooded with complaints from Yankee fans about her dedication to the team.

“Most people said ‘you are bandwagon fan. You are a traitor. You’re not supposed to divorce a team when they are losing. What kind of a fan are you?’ I was shocked by the response. I thought everyone would understand that it was tongue in cheek but they didn’t and I was forced to sort of look at myself. I thought, well maybe they are right. Maybe I’m not a true fan, maybe I don’t know what a true fan really is.”

So Jane wrote a book proposal to travel with the Yankees in city after city across the United States with her husband and explore her Yankee fandom. “Somebody actually paid me to go watch baseball, I mean I am still pinching myself.”

At first, she had to make adjustments. ”I had my comfy chair in my living room and nobody was screaming in my ear and the seat was comfortable. So the beginning was an adjustment and the travel was such a grind.” Jane “didn’t have the budget that the Yankees had,” and grilled each airline representative she encountered about the logistics of the flight and mechanics of the airplane. While the book tells a seamless story about the summer of 2007, Jane had to both live those experiences and stay up most of the night making notes and writing a summary of what happened each day. “You know the catchers always complain about who wants to catch a day game after a night game. I understand now.”

Much of the book follows Jane’s conquest to get access to the Yankees. She desperately wants to interview a player and get an inside look at Yankee life. “When I got the book deal, the first thing I did was contact the Yankees Media Relations Department.” An author of 13 novels, she requested a press pass in order to write her book. But Jason Zillo, the Director of Media Relations, denied the credential. Authors were only allowed access when writing about a player and with the player’s cooperation. Jane left us in suspense about how all of this would work out, but know that Mr. Zillo’s reach extended wide and far in the baseball industry, blocking her creative new attempts for access at every turn.

In addition to her entertaining us with her book-long quest to interview a Yankee, she really captured the essence and experience of the female baseball fan. After seeing so many female fans on her journey and talking to them, Jane really wanted to prove to the naysayers that:

“women really do love baseball and they really will buy a book about baseball, by a woman, cause a lot of people in publishing are like well, let’s see. I keep saying it’s an untapped market. I see it on the blogs. I see yours and so many others that I know. Women are out there who would get this.”

Some of it is a new phenomenon.

“When I first started watching baseball, you didn’t see women in the stands. I noticed it when the MLB Network went on the first night and they showed Don Larson’s Perfect Game from the 1950’s and it was interesting when you look in the stands, not only is everyone dressed up, men are wearing suits and everything, but there were no women that I could see.”

Times sure have changed since then; baseball and its fans have evolved. Women, Jane says, now represent about half of the people who go through the turnstiles.

“I think guys still think it’s odd that women really know what they are talking about. Now for me the difference is, most women I know are not into stats. There are a lot of women on the MLB blogosphere where I am and for lots of different teams and we all kind of talk about what’s going on, and what we think is going on and what we think about what we hear about what’s going on. I watch the games all the time. I know who gets on base and who doesn’t. I know who hits with runners in scoring position and who doesn’t. I just don’t, you know, sort of internalize the numbers. They shoot all these numbers at you and my eyes go blank. I just can’t listen to it. I just don’t; it bores me. Even now people are posting who should bat where in the lineup and it has been based on this percentage and that percentage but sometimes you just get a gut feeling. I think that good managers hopefully use the stats and the big booklet of stuff they are given but also go with their gut.”

Jane rejects the notion that you can’t be an informed baseball game without memorizing the numbers. It’s just that:

“women are different from men in the way we are fans. Female fans view the game from a more emotional perspective. We are just as knowledgeable about the sport as men, but we are as fascinated by the interactions between the players as we are by the velocity on a pitcher’s fastball. Some of us wear pink caps and jerseys, while others of us think it is maddening that we are consigned to our own color. What we all share is a passion for the game, for our team, for our guys. I see us in every city and ballpark and hotel lobby, cheering and hanging out and snapping photos. We are teenagers, and twentysomethings, soccer moms and corporate executives, baby boomers and seniors. We are everywhere.”

To female fans, the game is comfortable. Look around and see familiar sights, sounds and smells. Talk to the friendly faces you see over and over again, or meet new fans. You may get stressed out if your bullpen blows the lead, but you are always safe, at home and in your element at your ballpark. At one point, she realizes: “I am in the Yankees house now, my house. For so long i have wondered where “home” is. Tonight I know” and we could certainly relate to that experience.

To female fans, the stories are as important as the numbers. Therefore, it matters that Mariano Rivera plays with class and mentors his teammates. It doesn’t hurt that he’s one of baseball’s best closers, but it’s almost secondary.

“Mo epitomizes everything I would like a Yankee to be…I love his demeanor on the mound. He doesn’t pump his fist or draw attention to himself; he just comes out and gets the job done very elegantly and with class. He’s a very spiritual guy who is a mentor to anybody and everybody on the club. He’s just above and beyond what a player should be in my opinion. He not only just a great great closer, but I get the sense that he is a great human being too.”

Women tend to understand that players are human beings. After all, fans are human beings - oh, and so are the broadcasters. Jane recalls the media storm after Yankees color announcer Suzyn Waldman choked up during Joe Torre’s last game. “My God you would have thought it was the end of the world the way people ripped her and parodied her. I felt sorry for her.”

Maybe there is crying in baseball, after all. Waldman wasn’t the only one shedding tears when that 2007 season drew to a close. An adventure that started with anger and frustration on the West Coast had turned into a soul-searching journey for Jane and her husband, Michael, who was there throughout the experience to wait in rain delays, to try out the hot dogs at every park, to calm her down on turbulent plane rides and to help put her passion for the Yankees in perspective.

“I learned to appreciate the game instead of just the winning and losing, that’s really it and I really have gotten better. It was an important journey for me. I realized that I had been putting 25 men in pinstripes ahead of the one man that was here for me every day and night, win or lose.”

A very special thanks to Jane for taking the time to talk to us about her book, Confessions of a She-Fan, available in book stores now. Ladies, it’s a fabulous read, especially if, like us, you need to be inspired again and remember how to get past the loses. To the fellas, this would sure make a great Valentine’s Day present for the special “she-fan” in your life. For more information, visit JaneHeller.com and her Confessions of a She-Fan Blog. To purchase the book, visit B&N.com or Amazon.com.

The next interview in our Women in Baseball series, features Tatiana Tchamouroff, Massage Therapist for the Washington Nationals.

Tatiana arrived to meet us a few minutes after the game started, just after her baseball duties were completed for the evening. Her twelve hour days start at 8:00 am in her Bethesda office, where she sees clients until noon before heading to the park. The players fight for spots on her schedule, especially after long road trips. They will bargain with each other for those open slots; others will just schedule a morning appointment at Tatiana’s Bethesda practice. “It’s pretty funny the arguments that take place outside the door with guys trying to get on the list. I mean, I do everything I can to see everybody.”  They are fighting to see her because she’s one of the best.

She was widely credited for relieving Dmitri Young’s debilitating back pain in the early part of the ‘08 season. She was an integral part of Cal Ripken Jr.’s rehab team, and the trusted personal massage therapist to Brady Anderson. Despite having dozens of professional athlete clients, it wasn’t until 2008 that Tatiana had her first real opportunity to work for a professional team, something she’s been dreaming about for a long time.

At a very young age, Tatiana and her sister trained to be concert pianists, often practicing up to four hours a day. “My father was one of our instructors, but we also had three other instructors a week; that was my life, with the piano.”  Thanks to her dedicated piano practice, Tatiana developed a great deal of stamina in her hands. As a child she never understood why her father thought piano practice was so important, but now, years later, all of that practice has paid off.

I just looked at my father like why do I have to do stretches with my hands? Why do I have to practice for so many hours? And he kept telling me you have to get strength in your hands. Your fingers have to get that stamina. And that’s the interesting thing, who would have thought that years later, that the need for stamina in my hands that my father pushed, would help me beyond belief?

Just as her father’s persistence prepared her for the hard work of massage therapy, her mother’s passion for baseball prepared her to be a big fan of the national pastime.  Her mother, an El Salvador native, is a huge Yankees fan.  “When she came to the United States for the first time, all she wanted to do was see the New York Yankees play.”  Eventually, Tatiana would take her mother to see the Yankees.  They sat right behind home plate, as guests of Brady Anderson on a day that Tatiana still treasures as one of the best baseball memories of her life.  She assumed her mother’s passion for baseball early on, but cheered for her hometown Baltimore Orioles.  Before she decided to enter the massage therapy field, she sold lemonade for a family friend outside of Camden Yards before games.  “My sister and I would help them collect money, so it went from helping to collect money to my sister and I putting on these uniforms to sell more on Eutaw Street. The next thing you know, we were the only lemonade stand out there.”

Then, at eighteen, Tatiana lost feeling in her left leg.  That injury combined with lingering back pain sent her to several orthopedic surgeons. Hesitant to have major surgery, Tatiana began seeing a massage therapist.  After four sessions with the therapist, Tatiana started to feel relief from the constant pain, and got feeling back in her leg.

I just never experienced anything like that because I had been in pain for two years. So after that I figured ‘Ok this is what I want to do.’ Tatiana had originally wanted to be an orthopedist for handicap children, but since she had received such a huge benefit from massage therapy, she decided she wanted to do it herself.  “I thought I would always have back pain, but when you finally realize what it is to not have pain, I was like ‘Oh my God this is what I want to do.’ You know, so I basically threw away a full scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design to pursue massage therapy.

Her friends and family thought she was “out of her mind” but after living in pain for so long, she knew massage therapy was something she had to learn. Tatiana packed her bags and headed to Boulder College of Massage Therapy, in Colorado.

After her training, she returned to the D.C./Baltimore area, eager to start a career in pediatric massage, but hospitals were skeptical of massage programs. “Nobody wanted a scandal.  It wasn’t accepted yet; a lot of people still thought massage was sorta taboo.” Her sister, then employed at Camden Yards, knew Brady Anderson and introduced him to Tatiana. He suffered a quadriceps injury three weeks later and called Tatiana to see what she could do. He wasn’t a fan of massage therapy at the time, but after a successful rehab under her care, he became a big advocate, often referring other players to her. She began doing a lot of off site work for the Baltimore Orioles. She had so many clients that she opened her own practice in Bethesda.

One afternoon, Tatiana was working on a patient in her Bethesda office when her telephone rang.  “Tatiana, this is Cal.”  She laughed and wondered which of her silly friends or clients would prank her to impersonate her baseball hero.  “I said, look I’ve got a client on my table and you’ve got 30 seconds to tell me who this is or I am going to hang up.”  The previous night, Tatiana had talked to Mike Fetters, an Orioles pitcher, about a theory she had about Cal Ripken Jr.’s pain.  When Cal brought up that conversation, and her theory, she began hyperventilating.

He was my idol and in the midst of trying to keep my composure and not faint on the phone, he asked me what was wrong and I said ‘I just stubbed my toe on the desk.’  I felt so dumb; he got a nice chuckle out of it, and said okay when you catch your breath, please give me a call back.  This is my cell number. I’d like to schedule an appointment.

They met the very next day and she worked with him three to four times a week for four months before he finally decided to have surgery in Cleveland.

For years, she continued to try to land a job with a Major League Baseball team, but she was told repeatedly that because of her petite size and her looks that “it would only lead to problems.” One Wednesday afternoon, she decided to shave her head, cutting off 28 inches of her hair.

I’m the kind of person that when you tell me ‘no you can’t do it,’ I will prove to you that I can. I didn’t want to take no. I thought, you know what, I’m going to prove to you that I really, really believe in what I do and I’m good at it. So if you think I’m too cute, then I will make myself ugly. I wasn’t there to find love and have a boyfriend.  It was actually about sports therapy and orthopedic massage and I wanted to prove that point.

She returned to the ball park on Saturday to see the trainer and asked if he still thought she was a “distraction.” “I was like, look I’m serious. I love what I do. I want to work with professional players; this is my passion. He eventually said, you know fine, but I couldn’t come into the clubhouse. They would send all the work out for me to do.”

After ten years of off site work for the Orioles, Tatiana contacted Lee Kuntz, the Nationals trainer, to see if she could provide off site therapy for the Washington Nationals. In April of 2008, they asked her to come interview.

I was excited about it, but at the same time as a woman in sports, working with professional athletes, it’s been such a challenge because my name was what opened the door. I mean when you see Tatiana Tchamouroff, you think big Russian beast. Then I show up, and they’re like, ‘who the hell are you?’  So, I’m sort of going into the interview with the mindset that I won’t get the position. They told me I would see 2-5 players, but I saw 11 and I knew I did a good job.  They called me the very next day and said they were very impressed and that they were going to offer me the job. I will admit at that point I broke down crying in my office, and then said “you know what I gotta stop this, there’s no crying in baseball!”

Finally, it had all worked out. ”I was extremely nervous because so many of my clients who are former players were like, you know, good luck to you but honest opinion, the clubhouse is no place for a woman. You are going to have a lot of barriers to go through.” Luckily, that has not been her experience in Washington at all.

The guys here are awesome. They are so kind; they are hilarious. I have gained a boatload of brothers. I mean like, I only have my sister, so I don’t know what it’s like to have a brother but they are so protective and they try so hard to make sure I’m comfortable. It’s been a phenomenal experience. I couldn’t have imagined it any better.

At this point in our conversation with Tatiana, we heard a burst of cheers from the crowd.  We all stopped to look out at the field.  Wily Mo Pena had just hit his second and final home run of the season.

Oh my gosh did he do it!  Oh my gosh – yay!! I gave Wily Mo a massage today for the first time in 2 months!! I worked on him today and he hits a home run, that’s gotta be something! Good for him! Everyone was making fun of him too because he never comes to see me. Today, I’m like let me help you! Oh my god, see I told you it worked!!

Many of you already know about her success working with Dmitri Young.  Dmitri was the very first Nationals client she saw him during her interview.  She related well to Dmitri from her own debilitating experience with back pain.

I said, “Okay, you know I am going to try something.  If I’m right, it’s going to hurt like hell, but please believe in me and trust me. I think I know where this is coming from.” So I flipped him over and started to work on his psoas muscle and I found the knot that was in there. I wanted to jump up and down because I was like ‘I knew it I knew it!’ but I was like calm down and keep your composure.  I left for Florida that night and so the next day when I got the phone call that he was in the batting cages and he was hitting full force, I mean I couldn’t believe it because just a few days before he could barely get on the table because of the pain. So when I got that phone call that they were going to do an article on the Nats homepage, that was another moment when I just wanted to cry, but I didn’t let myself because I know there is no crying in baseball!!

She may have to hold back her tears, but she refuses to give up her ponytail again.  In fact, she can now quickly point to all the advantages of being a woman in her field, like being able to execute more intricate procedures with her small hands.

The benefit I have, I believe, as a woman, I mean I have little fingers, my fingers can get into spots that no man’s big fingers can. For example, like underneath the scapula, I can do more intricate work than I think most men can. I mean there are a lot of great male massage therapists out there. Don’t get me wrong, but I just think in this line of work, my elbow and my little finger are what have helped me so much.

Despite her incredible success, Tatiana is quick to spread the credit around.  Her parents, she says, deserve much of it, for helping her develop the physical strength required, for passing on a love of baseball and for their unconditional support.  Tatiana has renamed her Bethesda practice NINOTCH, in honor of her father.  Brady Anderson deserves credit for being her first major client and one of her biggest supporters.  She also credits her success to Lee Kuntz, the Nationals trainer who believed in her and encouraged the organization to give her a chance.

To finally get the credit after 13 years of working my butt off, just mostly to get respect, that’s the most important thing as a woman in this field…to have the respect of not only the players but of the organization. That’s huge, huge, so I just hope I make them proud everyday.  I go in there, I do my best, and to have so many people believe in you. They totally trust me.  I mean this is their career; they are being paid millions [of dollars] and when I go in there, most people would think it’s torture, because of the amount of pain I have to inflict on them to do what I have to do.  There is a lot of trust that goes in to let me do this. I just do the best I can every day because that’s all you can do. Within the organization itself I have felt really welcomed, from the players themselves all the way up to the GM – Jim Bowden. I mean they have all made me feel so welcome and they all believe in me so much that everyone else who makes those nasty ‘give it up and let a man do it comments’ just roll over my head because I have everyone here that believes in me and knows I’m doing the best I can and that’s all that matters.

Tatiana certainly faced challenges breaking into the baseball world, but she refused to give up.  Her persistence led her to this dream job, a job that has not brought about the obstacles so many people told her she’d face.

If you are really passionate about something then just stick to your guns and believe in yourself. You need to have confidence, as long as you believe in yourself and you have the support of those closest to you, whether it be family or friends I mean that’s what you are going to need to handle this field. Cause it’s tough especially as a woman trying to get into a field that is “meant” for a man. It’s taken me 13 years to get here, but it’s like throughout this very long road, I have had these wonderful opportunities with amazing people who have helped me get one step closer to my dream. I mean this is my dream job, it really is. I would have to say, if you find something that you are passionate about, no matter what the obstacles are, just be true to yourself and believe in yourself. Anything is possible and I mean it. Anything is possible and it sounds cliché but I mean come on, look at me. Some of the guys call me toothpick because I am so tiny and because I’m so small, but I think I’m pretty good at what I do and I think I can make any 300 pound man cry.

Yet for Tatiana, there’s no cryin in baseball.

A special thanks to Tatiana for taking the time out of her busy schedule to meet with us.  For more information, please visit NINOTCH:  An Urban Retreat.

For our next feature in the Women in Baseball series, we talked to Cheryl Zimmerman, mother of Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman.

 

It was a Thursday night and the Nationals were in the midst a make-up double header in Denver.  The Nats would go on to win both games.  Zimmerman went 3 for 9 with an error.

Back in her Virginia Beach home, his mother Cheryl watched both games, just as she has since he was a child.  “Everyday he had a game. It was nonstop. It was our life. It still is.  It’s a lot of hard work. It’s not all glamour. Getting up to this point, it took a lot of time and effort.”  Today, instead of rushing back and forth from practice and summer leagues, Cheryl cheers her son on from the comfort of her home, where she doesn’t miss a beat.  “I try to teach him to keep his mouth shut. I watch every word he says. And tell him to stop spitting…I tell him that all the time. Oh yeah, he loves that. ‘Oh, my mom’s watching.’”

And she is watching, but with great pride.  It wasn’t until his sophomore year of college that she knew he was destined for a professional career.  Cheryl can’t find fitting words to describe how emotional it was when he was drafted by the Washington Nationals in 2005.   She felt it again when Ryan launched a walk off home run against the Yankees on Father’s Day in 2006.  It’s her favorite memory of Ryan’s young career — “that Yankees game. I’m not a Yankees fan AT ALL. A lot of people here, friends of ours, they are Yankees fans. Oh, I just loved it.”

So did Nationals fans.  It was one of Ryan’s many special holiday performances.  Big games, clutch situations - that’s when Zimmerman excels and it’s part of the reason he’s already established himself as the face of the franchise at 24 years old.  Fans often hear that he’s a quiet leader, respected for his maturity and stoic presence on the field, much of which Cheryl helped to instill in him.  But, behind the scenes,

…you just never know what is going to happen next, what he’s going to do or say. He’s just so unpredictable and always exciting. He’s a ball of fire.  He might be calm, cool and collected on the field, but you never know what you’re going to get when you’re off the field. He’s pretty funny.

His mother is pretty funny too.  Raised in Pennsylvania, Cheryl attended Lock Haven University.  She played sports all of her life and kept score for the team her father coached.  “Back when I was in high school and college, I was a big Willie Stargell fan.  When I played softball, I was always #8. That was Willie’s number.”

Cheryl married her high school sweetheart, Keith, and taught elementary school special education while raising Ryan and his brother Shawn.  In 1995, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic, unpredictable disease that affects the central nervous system.   Her condition is often cited as a source of Ryan’s maturity.  Cheryl agrees:  “He’s learned and saw and dealt with it upfront. So he knows what people deal with and how they deal with it everyday.”

It prompted him to talk to his parents about starting a foundation to help fund MS research and programs for patients.  Cheryl recalls, “after he was drafted in ’05, we were sitting around here in the off season and we talked about it, and he said, let’s start a foundation. So, up it went. That’s kind of how it started…Oh, he’s up to bat…He wanted to help people with MS.”

“Damn, he didn’t get a hit. I’m sorry,” she interjects before completing her thought.

Cheryl oversees the ziMS Foundation with Ryan and her husband and helps to run the day to day operation and to plan for future events.

I have a couple of really good friends that come out here and help and do stuff on the computer and we do work for the foundation. I basically tell them what to do and between us we work on setting stuff up and doing stuff. I’m close to what the role of a treasurer would be. But I basically make phone calls and talk to people and tell people what to do and they listen to me….at least I like to think so. Just raising money and awareness.

Up next for Cheryl and the ziMS Foundation…an annual charity gala and golf tournament this weekend.  Last year the gala and tournament raised over $80,000.  Multiple sclerosis affects an estimated 300,000 people in the United States and probably more than 1 million people around the world — including twice as many women as men. Most people experience their first signs or symptoms between ages 20 and 40. For more information on the event, visit the ziMS Foundation website or sign-up to attend by clicking here.

We are so grateful to Cheryl for taking the time to talk to us about her experience as the mother of one of our favorite Nationals.  The work of the ziMS Foundation means a lot to the Zimmerman family, so please check out their website to learn more how you can make a donation to their cause.

The next interview in our Women in Baseball series features Chartese Burnett, Vice President of Communications, Washington Nationals.

It was early in the season when we sat down with Chartese Burnett, a moment and an interview each of us had eagerly looked forward to. Because Chartese is actively involved in the Washington Nationals community, we had all looked up to her for some time and appreciated the opportunity to learn more about her path, accomplishments and experiences. Chartese was candid and shared so much with us. Because she was generous with her time and so open and honest with her answers, it took us some time to write a piece that could reflect and capture her story in a compelling way. Alas, here is her story, with our apology for an extended delay.

Chartese grew up in Washington, the daughter of a man immersed in DC sports. Though she herself had no passion for any particular sport, her path would bring her into contact with several, both at the collegiate and professional level.  But before that, as a young child and eventually as a college student at Georgetown University, her plans were worlds away from professional sports.   She was eight when she first traveled to Europe and fell in love with foreign languages and cultures.  She studied French and Spanish and planned to be an interpreter/translator, but a college course in Communications really captured her interest. “I really liked it; I thought this is what I want to do.” It was actually during a stint as a Customer Support Representative with Xerox Corporation after college when she developed a love for dealing with the public.

She began working for Georgetown in Sports Information and left four years later as the Director of the department.  From there, she went on to work for the Commissioner of the NBA as Assistant Director of Media Relations.  In her two years there, she developed a great working relationship with Commissioner David Stern.  As a mentor, he helped prepare her for new opportunities in the sports world.

In 1993, she left the NBA.  Her husband’s job forced their family to move to Arizona and Burnett was anxious to spend time at home with their newborn.   Were it not for the move, “I think I would have tried to pursue being a working mother as I am now, but [looking back] it was a really worth while decision because I got to stay at home with my child.”  After three years, the family moved back to Washington and Chartese took a position with the licensing and marketing subsidiary of the NFL Players Union.  There she worked with “licensing and sponsors that utilize NFL players in their products, like NFL trading cards, computer games, and things like that.”

Five years later she took a break from sports and went to work for NASA Headquarters as Director of Public Outreach, coordinating special events, arranging public appearances and working with astronauts.  After a year with NASA, the Washington Nationals were moving to town and Burnett was recruited.

I was thinking baseball? I know nothing about baseball.  I promise you I had never really watched a baseball game.  My Dad had been a huge baseball fan, but I had never watched a baseball game even in the professional sports arena, I had never gone to a baseball game, so I was like and how many games do they have a year?

She interviewed for the position and decided that it was an amazing opportunity. RFK was just five minutes from her childhood home, giving her the chance to frequently visit her mother, who was very sick at the time and who has since passed away. “It was just working out too well.  I was able to go home and take care of my mom and have lunch with her.  I could get in the car and be there in five minutes.”

Though Chartese has always been an accomplished professional and a strong woman in her own right, her family has always been her top priority  Just as her mom’s health helped lead her to the Nationals, her two young daughters continue to help Chartese maintain an important balance with work and family, one that many working moms struggle to achieve.

For me it’s very important to get home to see my family. Even if there’s something that needs to get done past the workday hours, I go home and spend some time with my family and I put my kids to bed. If it can wait till tomorrow, it waits till tomorrow. If it can’t, then I go back to work in my home office and that’s okay. But I try to maintain as much of a balance as possible. The balance should be spending more time then 50/50, but I don’t. Unfortunately, I don’t. But I don’t beat myself up for it. But you know, I try to do it as best I can spending as much quality time with my kids as I can.

Achieving that balance is certainly not the first or only challenge Chartese has overcome.  In 1999, she was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. After six months of chemotherapy and eight weeks of radiation, Burnett was declared cancer free.  She battled through it - overcoming the odds with a determination to do everything she could to raise money and awareness to help others overcome it as well.  This year she was chosen as The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Woman of the Year.  She raised over $80,000 over a ten week period.  You can donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by clicking here.

Beating the disease strengthened her already strong resolve and today nothing can bring her down, not even the obvious challenges she faces in a male dominated profession, like baseball.  It may come as a surprise, but Burnett admits that for various reasons, baseball is far more male dominated than the other professional sports she has worked in.

People sometimes think you don’t know as much, or you’re not qualified, because I should know more about Ryan Zimmerman’s batting average.  Well that’s not germane to what I do.  I’m very qualified.  I’ve been around for a long time.

After proving that you’re as qualified as your male counterparts, women still face a very real glass ceiling in terms of executive positions available to them in the industry.  A friend of Burnett’s had just been skipped over for a promotion in the industry, despite having served a step under the executive for over a decade.

The challenge just makes women like Burnett work harder.  Every morning, Chartese starts the day by reading press clips assembled by her staff.  Her role is primarily administrative, overseeing all off the field public relations for the organization.  “I love talking to people, engaging people.  It really is my favorite part of the job.  I love working with my staff.  I like working with people and making an impact.”  She hates to write these days, citing a lack of creative energy, but loves to edit and tries to oversee, not micromanage her Communications department.  She can’t say enough about the strength of her staff. “The higher up you go the less hands on you have to be, I mean you can be as hands on as you’d like to be, but I have a phenomenal staff, they are very talented and experienced.”

As a mentor to her staffers, a responsibility she cherishes, she emphasizes professionalism.

As a mom of two girls, if you work for me, I’m going to treat you like my daughter. And it’s such a male dominated industry. You work in a male dominated arena. The first thing you want people to see is who you are inside — how knowledgeable you are, how professional and capable you are.  You’re already behind a little bit.  It’s unfortunate but you are.  Don’t put yourself further behind.

Of course, Burnett is the perfect mentor to inspire respect and trust from her staff.  Her story says as much.  These challenges are nothing compared to what she’s already overcome in life.  She’s a remarkable woman and only through the accomplishments of people like Burnett will the industry adjust to having bright, capable women making decisions.  “I believe that things can change; they will change. It’s up to us to make that happen. When you’re a woman in this business, you shouldn’t let that stop you.”

A surprise visit during our interview by Stan Kasten confirmed as much.  “We’re talking about women in baseball,” said Burnett.  Kasten’s replied with a smile: “We need more of them.”  In addition to being supportive of women in the industry, Kasten has also served as a mentor to Burnett.  “Working for him has been an amazing opportunity…He’s bright.  He’s talented.  He’s funny.  He’s engaging.  He’s sincere.  He’s a good person.”

Though she had never watched a baseball game before working for the Nationals, she quickly understood how and why baseball touches so many lives.

I think it is the most, well, the purest sport. The pace is slower, maybe it’s because of the audience.  There’s the experience of a family.  Then I see people in the Presidents Club.  There are corporate clients, typically companies entertaining.  But I also see families. I see kids. I see moms and I think it’s just about everybody. The game, the players.  When you think about these guys playing almost every day for 6 months. Baseball players are just so real. Maybe because we’re around each other all the time.

It may be special, even for someone who didn’t fall in love with the game the same way a fan or a young child did.  “There is nothing glamorous about this, but it’s fun, it’s entertaining, it really is, I think I have the best job in the world.”

Next up in our Women in Baseball series is Jenifer Langosch, MLB.com’s beat writer for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Determined young Jennifer Langosch knew at early age that she would work in baseball. Born a Braves fan in Marietta, GA, Langosch was eight when the Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series. From that moment on, Jennifer was hooked. Today, ironically, she’s Major League Baseball’s beat writer for the Pittsburgh Pirates. “In Pittsburgh, people here are so devastated about that game. I hear every week someone make a reference to that game and how they cried afterwards or how the Pirates have never been the same since that game.”

Jennifer too hasn’t been the same since. As a child, she began following baseball closely and analyzing it, preparing for a career in the industry.

When I was eight, we had to do that activity in school where you write down and draw a picture of what you want to be/do when you grow up and I told everyone that I was going to be the first female broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves. I went home and told my parents this, and surprisingly enough, they said, ‘Go at it.’ That’s when I started reading the Sports page everyday, keeping scorebooks during every Braves game and our family would take a trip each summer to a city where the Braves were playing and go to a few games and stay at the same hotel as a team. I guess you could say, that’s where the dream all started.

From that moment on, she’s been on the fast track to the major leagues. Langosch attended the prestigious journalism program at the University of Missouri. In college, Langosch landed her dream internship – a summer with MLB.com covering the Atlanta Braves. During the summer experience, she impressed all the right people. She was quickly offered a job to cover the Pittsburgh Pirates as full-time beat writer, a position that keeps her busy around the clock.

She arrives at the park around 2:30, an hour before the clubhouse opens. Before first pitch, Jennifer is required to submit 2-3 separate 400 word stories about general team news. During the game, she writes a “running gamer,” which is a 6 paragraph AP style recap of the game. The story is filed in the 8^th inning for the internet, but she has an opportunity to update and extend it later in the evening. Before leaving each night, she also has to file a game preview for the next day. On a given day, that’s 5 to 6 separate pieces. She stays busy in the off season too. As teams make trades, change personnel and prepare for spring training, she’s busy capturing those moments as well.

A lot of people think I have a cool job and I do have a cool job. I don’t take it for granted, but I don’t think a lot of people realize the time it takes to do all of it. Some people think I just go to the baseball game at watch it. It’s a lot more than that and especially when you throw in the traveling.

Combined with spring training and travel throughout the regular season, Jenifer is always on the run. But she has no complaints about that. “I always had a goal when I was little that I wanted to see all 30 ball parks. Eventually, I thought I would but this is speeding up the process a little. I think I’m at 21 right now.”

Despite her busy schedule, Langosch is so grateful for the opportunity to cover baseball, especially at such a young age. “I remember how many people would love to have the job I have and I think that makes me work harder in the end.”

Though she is a true fan of the game, she admits that a person could quickly lose interest in sports journalism if she didn’t love writing as well.

You have got to love the writing. If you don’t love the writing, the baseball part will wear off really really fast. A lot of people are huge baseball fans and they think, how can I get into the industry. Oh let me go into sports writing. Well, yeah you get to watch baseball games. But you’ll get burnt out in a heartbeat if you don’t like the writing part.

Though it’s a lot of work, Jenifer couldn’t imagine spending summers any other way.  While she’s always admired the game’s best, illustrated by her admiration of John Smoltz’s career, when asked about spending the day with a baseball legend, she quickly turns her mind to broadcasters and sportswriters like Rick Hummel and Hal McCoy.  She’s also a big fan of Don Sutton.

He was the guy I grew up listening to. He was with the Braves for so long. And he was the guy that I thought I would sound like, I just appreciated listening to him cover it more than anybody else. And so being able to understand it, for us, for me, it was TBS, listening to TBS and hearing him every night. He was Braves baseball for me.

Braves baseball was also something Jenifer experienced with her family. After all, they were at her side for Game 6 in 1995 when the Braves won the World Series. Langosch believes the family atmosphere and social nature of the game really make it important to so many people. Combine that with statistics, records and a rich history, and baseball is a special part of our lives.

It’s so special to Langosch that she refuses to ever let the profession change her appreciation for the game. “I absolutely still get a kick out of going to the ball park everyday. I think the minute that gets old, I will stop doing this. I don’t ever want to stop loving baseball — the sport.”

Though she’s new to the industry, she certain has had her share of challenging moments. There were doubts, for example, about whether she could handle the position. The Pittsburgh Pirates had never had a female beat writer. Several people in the organization voiced concerns to Major League Baseball about having a young female writer covering the team. But Langosch chartered a new territory and, one year in, exceeded all expectations.

I feel like I’ve had to prove myself, probably both because I’m young and because I’m female. Now, in the end, I think you gain a little more respect because you’re a woman and they expect you not to be able to do well in this profession. It’s definitely a challenge because you can tell that some of the men are looking for every little mistake you make or watching how you handle yourself, watching how you interact with players, things like that. It’s a lot more scrutiny early on.

It doesn’t take long to recognize that Langosch is incredibly professional. She laments the double standard that allows her male colleagues to socialize with players after a game. “I still feel like I can’t do that, because I feel like how will other people look at that? What will their impressions of me be?”

On a trip to Milwaukee, the security guard for the clubhouse singled out Jenifer, but none of the male writers. Pulling her aside and out of the line, he examined her credentials carefully while all the others entered with no problem.

Despite the challenges, Jenifer also has unique insight into how publications can uniquely appeal to the female fan. “I think women are more attracted to the human aspect of baseball and for me, I try to balance it out by doing a good number of feature writing and then also game stories. I think the women like knowing about the guys’ personalities and what they like to do off the field and things like that.” Getting families to the park is the other way to foster a better fan base of women, though rising ticket prices make that difficult as well.

The one thing that I noticed is women in this industry really stick together. Whenever I did that project in college, I called female sports writers all around the country; they would sit on the phone and talk with me forever if I needed them to. It’s kind of like a little sorority. We’re definitely the minority, so by sticking together and sharing stories, a lot of the women that have been doing this for 15-20 years really have reached out to the people of my generation to make sure that females want to come into this business.

Just as she found female mentors in the industry, namely Michelle Hiskey and Christine Brennan, she considers it a professional obligation to encourage young women to pursue sportswriting.

In the year that I’ve been here, I’ve gotten a lot of emails from girls and teenagers that told me, “I didn’t know I could do this stuff.” If it’s something that you are interested in growing up, immerse yourself in it. Find opportunities to write about sports, whether it be college, high school. I think it’s good to get an array of experience. I did game stories, I did feature writing, I did community sports, I did everything. The more that you do and the more that you are willing to do, I think, puts you a step ahead of some people. Some people have a huge ego. They don’t want to step as low as covering whatever they have to cover. You do have to pay your dues. You do have to just never be afraid to go out and find a story.

And, don’t ever let anybody tell you can’t do this. Because I had people growing up, friends in high school that told me, being a girl, I could not do this. And I was wasting my time. Actually, I had a friend of mine told me I was wasting my talent wanting to be a baseball writer. So, never give up on your dreams and never let anybody tell you that you can’t do that. Because I think any female in this profession will be told at least once that they don’t belong, or that they can’t do this or that they are making a poor career choice.

For Jenifer, it was the right choice. She couldn’t be happier covering baseball day in and day out, visiting ballparks across the country and thinking about innovative and exciting ways to describe the game she’s loved since childhood.

Given the recent passing of another one of her childhood heroes, Jenifer offered the following addendum to this interview:

On passing of Skip Caray…
 
I was just commenting earlier on Sunday, before the news of Caray’s death, about how I hadn’t had much of an opportunity to watch Braves games this season. Obviously my being with the Pirates makes that difficult schedule-wise. And the fact that TBS is no longer televising Braves games even limited the opportunities I had when I had days off. It was Skip, along with Pete, Joe and Don (it was always just first names to me as a kid) that brought me Braves baseball on TBS for so many years. 
 
The first baseball memory that I have was the 1992 NLCS. Game 7. Sid Bream’s slide to beat the Pirates in the bottom of the ninth inning. Skip made that call. He made the one when Marquis Grissom caught the final out in the 1995 World Series. He made the one with Otis Nixon’s famous climb-the-wall catch. Those are calls that I’ll remember word-for-word forever.
 
I had the opportunity to meet Skip a few times, both as a child and then as a professional working in the same industry. It was because of him and the other three Atlanta voices that I decided to go into this profession. I wanted to be a Braves broadcaster, just like them. When I found out that Skip had graduated from the University of Missouri, I sent my college application in there. It must be a pretty good journalism school then, right? Little did I first know that it was one of the best in the country. I still wonder if I ever would have looked at Mizzou had it not been for Skip. And if not, I most assuredly would not be doing what I am doing professionally right now.
 
Skip was one of a kind. His voice. His wit. His sarcasm. And even the way he used to pretend like he knew every person that caught a foul ball. (“Nice catch by Jane Myers from Woodstock, Ga., he’d say). Listening to Braves games won’t be the same. But, at least for me, that doesn’t mean that his voice has to die.

Many thanks to Jenifer for taking time out of her busy schedule to talk with us and sharing her story. 

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.  

The next feature in our Women in Baseball series profiles Andrea Larson, Corporate Communications Manager for the Minnesota Twins.

Andrea Larson, the Corporate Communications Manager for the Minnesota Twins, has always been a baseball fan. Growing up in the Twins Cities area, Andrea has been a Twins fan since birth. She calls her parents “obsessed fans.” In fact some of her favorite baseball memories come from attending World Series games in 1987 and 1991 and several Breakfast of Champions events in the community where she would meet players get autographs as a child. Her parents actually went to all seven games of the ’87 series. Though she shares her passion for the game with her father (pictured below) and brother, the Larson family women know their baseball too. Andrea’s 89-year-old grandmother is also an avid Twins fan. “My Grandma is probably the biggest Twins fan I know, besides my mom. My Grandma still talks about the Twins all the time.” In such a dedicated family, it seems natural that Andrea would be raised a true baseball fan.

Andrea’s journey into the Twins Organization started after she graduated from the University of Colorado with a bachelor’s degree in communications. She then earned her MBA in Sports Management from the University of St. Thomas. Andrea started her career at public relations agencies like BSMG World Wide, and later Fleishman Hillard in Minneapolis. After a brief stint at United Health Group, Andrea read in the local paper that the Twins public relations manager was leaving the organization. “I thought that there might be a job opportunity and I applied. I heard there were 300 resumes or something like that, I didn’t know anyone or anything like that, but somehow I guess I had what they were looking for.” The 2008 season will be Andrea’s third season with the club.

A typical day for Andrea includes managing all media and community relations off the field, “the business side of things” as she calls it. She handles the promotions and plans events. In addition, Andrea is in charge of maintaining the Twins website. This season Andrea and her colleagues are all pretty busy with plans for their new ballpark, which opens in 2010.

Andrea feels lucky to be doing her dream job. She knew working in baseball wasn’t always glamorous, but it was a challenge she was ready for.

“This is what you sign up for when you work in baseball. It was no secret when I signed up here, and they made it very clear, that it’s long hours and a lot of work. It’s fun but you spend a lot of time at it and you are very busy. It was definitely a challenge I was ready for.”

But that’s Andrea, a young woman who quietly works hard and gets the job done without focusing too much on the challenges. “You know I don’t really focus on the fact that I’m a female in the industry. I’d like to think that there aren’t issues, and if there are, I don’t pay too much attention to it. The people here are very fair and diplomatic.” Though Andrea hasn’t experienced many challenges in the baseball world, she still looks up to women that have had success in the industry, like Dodgers president Jamie McCourt.

As a female baseball fan herself, Andrea often considers the female demographic when planning events and promotions for the Twins organization. “Women I think appreciate the finesses of the game. It’s not a violent sport, it’s a structured game, and it’s fun to watch and cheer.” The market for the female baseball fan is continually growing and the Twins are trying hard to capitalize on that growth. “We are really trying to focus on that market. Baseball is very popular with women and I think it’s a market we can capitalize on even more.”

Because the Twins are such a big part of the fabric in the twin cities area, Andrea’s favorite part of her job is sharing the team’s community focus with the media. “I mean people are obsessed with the Twins, at every level, so it’s fun to be able to share that information via the media with all of the public.”

Some of Andrea’s favorite community events geared to women include the Mother’s Day festivities and the special Wine, Women and Baseball events. Mother’s Day is special for Andrea, not just because of the pink bats. “The Mom’s and wives are very involved in the community. It’s a very active organization.” This year, more than 35 of them participated in the Susan G. Komen Walk for a Cure, including breast cancer survivor Jan Guerrier, mother of Matt Guerrier.

The Twins will also hold eight or nine Wine, Women and Baseball events this season. The events are open to women only and include a pre-game happy hour and then tickets to that night’s game. “We have a tent and women come in and they get manicures, they can drink wine, they can have food and get their makeup done. We always have a special guest, either a Twins’ wife or someone from the community, that does a little Q&A with them. They are really fun; no boys allowed. It’s been a very popular event.” These events are so popular that the 250 available tickets always sell out fast.

Andrea counts herself lucky to be able to work for the team she grew up cheering on. She was working at various jobs for eight years before joining the Twins. Her advice to others is heartfelt,

Go for it, chase your dreams, but know you have to work hard. Just be patient and you will eventually find your niche… Don’t think just because you are a female it would be difficult for you; it’s something I don’t even think about.

A special thanks to Andrea for taking the time to speak with us, despite her busy schedule.

The first feature in our Women in Baseball series of interviews this season begins with Lucy Calautti, Director of Government Relations, Major League Baseball.

In 1962, a young girl waited patiently outside the Polo Grounds for her childhood baseball hero, Mets Short Stop Elio Chacon, to autograph a foul ball caught by her father.  Young Lucy Calautti could never have predicted that one day she’d be working at the right hand of the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.  Some people spend a lifetime trying to find a job they love, but Lucy Calautti, Major League Baseball’s lobbyist, has achieved that dream. 

A Mets fan by birth, Lucy spent her summer nights as a child at the newly opened Shea Stadium, just one subway stop from her home in Flushing.  It was there that Lucy first fell in love with the American pastime.  “My generation of men and women in New York were huge baseball fans.  You rode the subway, you talked baseball.  I mean, that’s just the way it was.”

She left Flushing to join the Navy to help pay for college while the country was in the midst of the Vietnam War.  During those four years, she became close friends with the only other woman in her squadron, a friendship that prompted her to visit and eventually move to North Dakota.

In North Dakota, Lucy finished her college education and earned a degree in English.  She worked as a school teacher, but quickly fell in love with politics.  Her work in the women’s movement caught the attention of state official Byron Dorgan.  Dorgan encouraged Lucy to join his team as a writer and advisor.  She ran his race for the U.S. House of Representatives and eventually served as his Chief of Staff in Washington, all the while becoming “known in North Dakota as someone who really understood politics and policy and how to win battles.”

In 1986, she ran Kent Conrad’s successful race for the U.S. Senate.  She recalls, “He was 38 points behind and he actually ran against an incumbent and yet we won.  In North Dakota, they said it was the political story of the century.  And I like to joke that I was so proud of him that he won, that I married him.”  The two made their home in Washington where Lucy returned to work for Byron Dorgan, running his races and serving as his Chief of Staff.  

Then, after two decades in politics, “it just so happened, that Major League Baseball…was looking for an executive that would help them navigate their issues in Washington.”  Instantly, Lucy thought, “I am just exactly the right person for this job.”

As Major League Baseball’s lobbyist, Lucy spends her time in Washington as an “advocate for the Commissioner on issues for which Major League Baseball might need help from Congress.”  At the beginning of each year, Calautti sits down with each of the thirty clubs and the Commissioner to find out what issues or problems they have encountered that could be addressed administratively, through a federal agency or by Congress.

For example, Calautti says, “Some very important immigration issues emerged starting several years ago when I would do these interviews with the clubs and they needed me to get legislation passed to fix…problems that were keeping our foreign born players from coming into this country.”

Calautti’s typical day then involves:

…visiting with members of Congress, writing reports, giving them language that they can use to create a bill, sitting down with everybody on the appropriate committee and their staffs to go over why this is important, doing letters of support and bringing out baseball owners or officials from Major League Baseball to sit down with Congress to show the importance of these issues. 

After the bill is drafted and has achieved support from key members, Calautti helps to grind out the bill and persuade members of both the House and the Senate to get the legislation passed.  Like most lobbyists, she often hosts fundraisers for members of Congress to help them raise money for campaigns as well.
 
Of course, as we all know, there are times when Congress approaches Major League Baseball directly about issues.  For the past several years, Congress has taken an increased role in investigating steroid allegations.  During those times, Calautti has found herself explaining “to Congress and the Administration baseball’s position…on issues that we don’t necessary want Congress to fix but that Congress has decided they want to be involved in.” Part of her duties will require continued “work with Congress to oppose the legalization of any kinds of drugs or so called dietary supplements that metabolize in the body as steroids.”

As Major League Baseball’s advocate on Capitol Hill, she also has the opportunity to introduce people in the political world to baseball, a task which admittedly is her favorite part of the job.  “I love when members of Congress want to sit down and talk baseball and ask me, ‘So, what do you think?  Are the Tigers going to be in first place this year? Is their pitching going to be as good as Cleveland’s?’ I love that members of Congress and other people in the world of politics and policy see me as a way to express their love of the game.”

But Lucy has another special task.  Every year, she introduces baseball players to the world of politics.  Calautti brings Major League Baseball’s 150-180 rookies to Washington for a civics lesson every summer.  She takes them to the floor of the Senate, the floor of the House and to the White House.  They also dine with her in the Capitol. 

Of course, Lucy’s dream job hasn’t come without challenges.  Throughout her whole life, Calautti has taken positions that had been ordinarily or previously been filled by men.  Starting with the Navy and throughout her twenty year career in government and politics, she was a trailblazer for other women.  Baseball, Calautti says, was not a huge reach for her personally but expectantly, she encountered additional challenges in the industry. 

There are certain things that women face if they are in a world where there are primarily men.  And it’s seems that having to prove oneself is a very important part of it.  And so, I do it.  I do it by putting my head down and doing my job really well and being accepted over time.  But is it instant acceptance? No.  Is it a little difficult sometimes for men who are, for example, in a sport to get used to having a woman around professionally? It can be.

Lucy compliments Commissioner Selig for making her transition easier, “because Bud Selig is very comfortable with strong professional women.  He’s married to one.  His daughter Wendy ran, as you know, a Major League Baseball club, so I was very fortunate in having his leadership.”

Calautti laughingly admits, however, that the Commissioner’s office really wasn’t interested in her extensive baseball knowledge. “I tried to regale them with it.  I knew everybody’s lineup and I memorized ERA’s and I just loved baseball.”  Instead, they wanted somebody who could navigate Washington.  It just so happened that the person they chose also loved the national pastime.  

Lucy loves the game because it’s intelligent – meaning it requires one to understand that there are lot of different things going on all at once.  During every pitch, from the pitcher and catcher battery that decides what to throw, to the batter and his team’s base runners, to the coaching staff’s strategic decisions to move outfielders or put on a shift, baseball requires fans to follow all of it simultaneously.

Her respect for baseball’s tradition requires a solid appreciation for statistics and records.  “Real baseball fans, they really pay attention to the numbers.  And that’s a very exciting part of the game.  The numbers seem to be more important at baseball than in any other game.” 

As you may have guessed, Lucy, a stickler for tradition, prefers the National League game and wants to see organizations develop their own players.  “I love the idea of a David Wright.  I think the fact that he’s homegrown.  When I say homegrown, I mean, he came through their system.  And I really like the idea of baseball returning to the idea of building up your own farm organization and bringing exciting young people to the game.  And, oh my heavens, he is a gamer.”

Though Calautti has wined and dined with both beltway and baseball insiders, she wishes she could spend a lunch hour with Hall of Fame pitcher, Sandy Koufax.  “Is he the greatest left-hander in history? Perhaps,” she wonders out loud.  Calautti shares with many baseball fans a deep respect for Koufax’s career and his ability to walk away from the game he loved and never look back at such a young age. 

She, too, has had a career worthy of respect.  Having paved the way with no professional female role models, Calautti takes to heart the task of providing advice and guidance to young people today. 

If you have a goal, if you want to break into an industry, make sure that you present the right skill sets.  I can’t tell you how often as a mentor to young people I find that they come to me and say, for example, ‘I’d really like to work in baseball or in sports because I love it so much.’  And I say to them, ‘that’s all well and fine.  Glad you love it.  But what do you bring to the table?’  You must make sure that if you want to break into a certain kind of industry, whether it is sports or anything else, that you’ve built up the education and experience that you can use to really sell what you are to your prospective company or organization.

Lucy used the skills she developed over twenty years in local, state and federal politics to land her dream job of representing Major League Baseball in Washington.  She has overcome challenges thrown her way and continues to be a great example to women in professional sports. 

A special thanks to Lucy for taking the time to speak with us, despite her busy schedule.