Sports

MLB broadcaster from metro Atlanta living out her dreams, making her-story

BALTIMORE — The Atlanta Braves are hitting the road this weekend for a three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles.

A name familiar to Cherokee County is on the Orioles broadcast team. Etowah High alumnae Melanie Newman made history earlier this summer as member of the first all female broadcast team for a MLB game.

Channel 2′s Alison Mastrangelo caught up with Newman to talk about her journey from Cherokee County to the national broadcast spotlight.

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It’s been almost a month since Newman was part of the first all women MLB broadcast. At the time, she never realized just how much attention she and her fellow coworkers would receive for doing a job they do every day.

“Still the fact that Billie Jean King tweeted about it every single time, to have your name in a tweet with her, there’s just something so crazy about it,” she said.

Newman told Mastrangelo she received thousands of tweets, emails, and texts after the historic MLB broadcast and admits she hasn’t had a chance to respond to all of them just yet

However, she did have time to talk with her favorite tv station growing up in Atlanta.

“Well first of all it’s crazy. I grew up watching Channel 2, so to see the logo in the background is a very serendipitous moment. I kind of feel how little girls feel when they get to watch what we are doing,” Newman said.

[RELATED: Cherokee County’s Melanie Newman makes history with 1st MLB all-women broadcast team]

The Cherokee County native credits her love of sports to her family and growing up just outside of Atlanta because she had a chance to watch professional athletes compete at the highest level

“We had the Olympics in 1996, and I remember my parents taking us to all of these different events. I remember growing up in the hey day of the Braves, and they were coming fresh off a world series. Bobby Cox was such a legend,” Newman said.

“We went to Braves games. We went to SEC football games. That was our family quality time together was sporting events.”

Newman spent several years broadcasting and doing play by play for different minor league baseball teams.

Even though she’s not reporting at home ball park Truist Park, she finally got called up to the big leagues in 2020 when she joined the Orioles broadcasting team

Newman’s job duties include doing play by play for radio and when she’s not on radio, she’s hosting and sidelining games for TV.

“I really am in the place I truly believed I wanted to be. The only step that goes from here is not having any COVID affected games. I still haven’t stepped on our field. That’s just the next step for it to actually feel that I am in the big leagues. Through nobody’s fault, there’s just those little moments that it doesn’t sink in because you are so removed from everything,” Newman said.

Newman will be part of another all-women broadcast crew on Aug. 27. The game between the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox will air on MLB Network.