Recently, Oakland A’s play-by-play announcer Jenny Cavnar has come under fire for some of her calls that have gone viral on social media.
Cavnar has already been honored by the Hall of Fame. This season, she became the first woman to serve as the primary play-by-play announcer for an MLB team.
The NBC Sports California broadcaster spent the last 12 years working for the Colorado Rockies in a variety of roles, including as a backup play-by-play broadcaster. In 2018, she became the first woman to call play-by-play for an MLB game in over two decades.
And yet, even with a wealth of experience, she’s seen some of her home run calls be questioned by listeners, particularly in Oakland’s recent series against the Baltimore Orioles.
Announcers are constantly under scrutiny and not immune to criticism, especially in the age of social media where highlight clips are entrenched with their calls and voices — for that matter. The San Francisco Chronicle recently defended the A’s announcer in an editorial after an online petition was launched urging for her firing.
And in doing so, the writer — Scott Ostler — acknowledged that of all the team’s problems, Cavnar’s play-by-play skills are not one of them.
Here’s an excerpt from Ostler’s piece:
Her crimes? According to the petitioner, Cavnar is doing an “extremely poor job of announcing.” Worse, three years ago, while working at a different job in a different city, Cavnar opined that Oakland’s then-Mayor Libby Schaaf was responsible for the A’s inability to build a ballpark in Oakland.
Your pet gerbil can start an online petition if you teach it to tap-dance on a keyboard. But as of early afternoon Monday, more than 620 people had signed the petition demanding that Cavnar be fired, because …
“We don’t need anyone announcing the games giving negative commentary,” one petition signer harrumphed.
Uh, there has been no negative commentary by Cavnar, but let’s not let facts stand in the way of mob rule.
Another signer explained his reason for joining the cause: “Not a baseball voice.”
Gentlemen, start your dog whistles.
This story raises all types of ugly issues, gender bias included. Radio and TV announcing is a highly subjective profession; the love or hate from fans doesn’t have to rise to the level of admissible court testimony. You like ’em or you don’t.
But when you participate in what you hope is the first-ever petition-driven firing of an announcer, you can’t ignore the fact that your target is the first woman ever working as a full-time major-league baseball play-by-play announcer.
Whatever your opinion is of Cavnar, starting an online petition to have her removed barely a month into her tenure as the A’s primary play by play announcer seems extreme, especially considering the gender issues at hand and the history Cavnar is making. Her commentary hasn’t struck a negative tone, and her home run calls are fairly standard.
Not everyone is going to love their team’s play-by-play broadcaster, but as the Chronicle’s editorial argues, the A’s have much bigger issues as a franchise to address than the announcer for their road games.