A sit-down with A's new play-by-play announcer Jenny Cavnar
OAKLAND, Calif. - When Jenny Cavnar takes the microphone to call the Oakland A's home opener on March 28 against the Cleveland Guardians, she will make history as the first female primary play-by-play announcer in Major League Baseball history.
When it comes to talking sports, Cavnar can do it all.
The five-time Emmy winner has covered the San Diego Padres as a reporter and anchor. She's called both men's and women's college basketball games for FS1 and the Pac-12 Networks, and in what has historically been a male-dominated field, she's been the backup play-by-play announcer for the Colorado Rockies for more than a decade.
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In a sit-down interview with KTVU Fox 2, Cavnar described her journey saying, "I try and tell kids, they all want this linear path, they want the handbook. It's like when you become a parent there's no handbook! It's about doing the work, finding your passion, making great relationships and just pursuing it."
Cavnar was an athlete in high school. Although she never played baseball or softball, her love for the game came at a very early age.
"I think it's a lifestyle. I was born into baseball. My dad is a high school baseball coach back in Colorado, so people often ask me when I fell in love with the game and I feel like it was just kind of always there. And the love grew, so growing up in a sports family definitely planted a seed that it would be pretty awesome to work in sports later in life," she said.
Cavnar says her ultimate career inspiration came in 2007. She recounted watching Melissa Stark on Monday Night Football "was the first moment it clicked for me."
Stark thought it looked like a fun job and thought "I think I could do that. And my dad and my mom really encouraged me along the way."
That encouragement, and a lot of hard work, have carried her all the way to make history with the A's. She says, "I think it's kind of this culmination, this overwhelming feeling that your dreams come true, and it's never too late to start a new dream."