Monday’s night game at Fenway Park may not go down in the annals of baseball. No one threw a no-hitter. No one hit for the cycle.
But Portland Sea Dogs broadcasters Emma Tiedemann and Rylee Pay made history in their own right when they stepped into the booth with NESN broadcasters Dave O’Brien and Kevin Youkilis.
At the start of the game, Pay compared the experience to that of the Double-A prospects they cover every day getting their first call-up to the big leagues.
“It’ll be really special for us to sit down today, take a second in the booth, look down at Fenway Park, and see it all through their eyes as well,” she said.
“Fenway is a little bit different from Hadlock Field up in Portland, Maine,” Tiedemann added. “But very excited to call a major league baseball game here.”
There were nerves, Tiedemann said, and lots of adrenaline.
“I think the first batter was walking to the plate that it was like ‘oh, OK, now it’s time for Red Sox baseball.’”
Pay and Tiedemann both grew up loving the game. Tiedemann’s grandfather was a sportscaster and worked for the Texas Rangers and Chicago White Sox. Tiedemann has worked in baseball for the last 10 years, starting in Alaska, and eventually Portland, the home of the Red Sox’s Double-A affiliate.
Pay started with the Sea Dogs last season while finishing her college degree. Together, they became the second pair of female broadcasters in professional baseball.
And though it is a big moment, Tiedemann is looking forward to the days when the next call up for women in baseball isn’t such a big deal.
Women are slowly making their way into the broadcast booths of professional baseball and high-ranking positions throughout the sport.
“There’s still so much work to be done, which is I think why this is such a big deal,” she said. “Now granted, the Red Sox have had a very, very long history and to just be a part of it is very cool, and to maybe be a trivia question one day.”
For Pay, there was one call during Monday’s night game that will stay with her for a while, a two-run home run from Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran in the bottom of the eighth inning.
“I just remember kind of feeling numb. Like one of those like oh wow, this is happening?” Pay recalled.
The Blue Jays added two more runs that night, and the Red Sox lost 7-3. But Tiedemann said the outcome of the game didn’t matter so much. She said she tried to stop and take in the experience during the seventh-inning stretch and during “Sweet Caroline” in the eighth inning.
“For me it was the last 10 years in baseball of the long days, the long bus rides, the tarp pulls, all of those little things that go into this game, and knowing that it all was worth it, for one night,” Tiedemann said. “And if that’s all I have at the major league level, it was a really special night, and I’ll carry it with me forever.”
Tiedemann would like to be the radio voice of a major league team someday. Pay also hopes to take TV and radio to the major league level.
For now, Tiedemann and Pay are back to the minor league grind this week, with the Sea Dogs on the road in Harrisburg. The Portland team is in first place in the Eastern League Northeast, and with any luck, Tiedemann and Pay will have a few playoff games to call next month.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
