Say what? Red Sox affiliate honors broadcaster Tiedemann with talking bobblehead

Emma Tiedemann, the voice of the Portland Sea Dogs, has been calling baseball games for over a decade. A notable career highlight occurred on Aug. 24, 2024, when she and Rylee Pay comprised the first all-female broadcast booth in Boston Red Sox history. In August 2025, she returned to Fenway Park, working with color analyst Alanna Rizzo as part of an historic all-female broadcast.

On Feb. 4, National Girls and Women in Sports Day, Tiedemann added another illustrious honor to her resume: The Sea Dogs -- Boston's Double-A affiliate -- announced that they will give away an Emma Tiedemann talking bobblehead on Aug. 21.

When asked for her reaction to her impending bobblehead immortalization, Tiedemann responded with a mixture of self-effacement and seriousness.

"I mean, no one grows up wanting to be a bobblehead, so it's a huge honor," she said, speaking from Major League Baseball's headquarters after participating in a National Girls and Women in Sports Day panel.

"But all jokes aside I think it's a really special thing. ... Any way that we can showcase that broadcasting could be an avenue for a little girl in Maine, or really anywhere in the country, to take on one day is really cool to see. Maybe she'll get a bobblehead and want to be a broadcaster."

Tiedemann, who grew up in the Dallas suburbs, credits her grandfather Bill Mercer with inspiring her to work in broadcasting. Mercer, who passed away at the age of 99 in 2025, called a wide variety of sports over his long career, and spent over three decades of teaching broadcasting classes at the University of North Texas. Spurred on by his encouragement and tutelage, Tiedemann pursued a career in baseball. After stints with the summer-collegiate Mat-Su Miners and the then-independent St. Paul Saints, she broke into the Minor Leagues as the lead voice of the Lexington Legends in 2018.

The 2025 season was Tiedemann's fifth behind the mic for the Sea Dogs, a tenure that has also encompassed her groundbreaking appearances in the Boston Red Sox booth.

"[The bobblehead] has to be up there, right?" she said, considering how it will rank among her career accomplishments. "Just to be immortalized that way is the most Minor League Baseball thing ever."

And, yes, Tiedemann's bobblehead talks. Specifically, it will recite her call of the final out of the Sea Dogs' combined no-hitter on July 23, 2023. "The second no-hitter of the season," goes a portion of the call, "as lightning has struck twice for Portland!"

The timing of the bobblehead's announcement was intentional of course, with the Sea Dogs celebrating one of their own on National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

"It's really cool to see how bright our future is in the whole grand scheme of the landscape of baseball," said Tiedemann. "It's really encouraging."