Why are there no women in the broadcast booths for Major League Baseball? There are many who could do the job, and do it better than some of the talking heads that are there now. [See this].
Back when I did radio play-by-play for the AA London Tigers, I worked with many different people as co-announcers. Despite my strongly worded suggestions to the station manager that we find women to co-broadcast in the booth, it never happened.
Women doing play-by-play; women doing commentary and analysis. I see no reason why it shouldn't and won't, eventually, happen.
There are two women whose names come to mind immediately for me.
- Sherry Nichols. She was one of the stalwarts on rec.sport.baseball 20 years ago. She was a genius and had excellent commentary and analysis day-in and day-out. As I recall, it was she who advanced what came to be known as "The Nichols Law of Catching": any big league catcher who can't hit is then touted by announcers (known as "mediots" to the participants on rec.sport.baseball) as having great defensive skills. Once people began to figure out how to assess catchers' defensive skills, of course, this myth was dismissed. I have never met nor corresponded with Sherry Nichols, and I have no idea whether she would be interested in doing media work. I expect she could do it though.
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Christina Kahrl. Christina was also a regular on rec.sport.baseball. She and I corresponded a couple of times back then, and we are Facebook friends. I have no doubt she could do the job well. From the website cited above, "Her credentials: Want someone who can tell a good anecdote but also understands sabermetrics? Karhl, a co-founder of the analytical website Baseball Prospectus and an ESPN writer/editor, would be a good catch. She’s also a vocal transgender activist and has spoken about how baseball eased her transition."
Sadly, I'm not sure it will happen anytime soon. For one reason, most viewers/listeners seem disinclined to pay attention to solid numerical analysis. And for another reason, I cannot see most viewers/listeners overcoming the unfortunately deeply ingrained sex biases in sports and sportscasting.