Root Sports anchor Angie Mentink named recipient of the 2019 Moose Clausen Community Service Award
The Seattle Mariners RBI Club has conferred its top community service award on ROOT SPORTS Anchor Angie Mentink. The 2019 Al “Moose” Clausen Community Service Award will be presented to Angie on June 21, at the RBI Club luncheon at T-Mobile Park and during a pregame ceremony before the Mariners take on the Baltimore Orioles (7:10pm first pitch).
The RBI Club is an organization of Mariners season ticketholders who are active in the community. The Moose Clausen Award is given by the RBI Club each year to recognize an individual for significant contributions to the community.
“Through her days as a standout for the Husky Softball team, to her trailblazing career as a professional baseball player, Angie has always set an example of what hard work can accomplish. Her smooth transition to the broadcast booth has helped pave the way for other talented women to follow, and as a breast cancer survivor, Angie is an inspiration to us all,” said Bob Simeone, RBI Club Commissioner.
Mentink’s collegiate athletics career started at Central Arizona College where she was a two-time AllAmerican and won two NJCAA National Championships. When the University of Washington added the sport of softball, she was recruited by the Huskies to help launch the inaugural campaign. She still holds records for single-season batting average (.472) and stolen bases (59), as well as career batting average (.429). Mentink was the first Husky softball player to earn All-Pac 10 and All-American honors while topping the Pac-10 Conference in hits, runs and stolen bases. She was also the first softball player to be inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame.
In 1995, a childhood dream came true when Angie was chosen to play for the Colorado Silver Bullets, the first women’s professional baseball team to be fielded since 1954. Angie and her teammates toured the country taking on men’s semi-pro teams in Major League ballparks like the Kingdome, Shea Stadium and Coors Field.
Mentink began her broadcasting career as an intern for what was then called Prime Sports Northwest, now known as ROOT SPORTS. She worked her way up to Mariners beat reporter and color commentator for the network’s softball telecasts. Today, she is one of the network’s featured personalities who is noted for her candid, humor-infused approach to sports.
In 2017, Angie met a challenge greater than any on the athletic field or high-pressure world of live TV when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After surgery to remove cancerous tissue and a five-week regimen of high-dose radiation treatment, Mentink is now cancer-free. Since her diagnosis, Mentink has been a vocal advocate of early cancer detection and lends her voice and her high profile to efforts to raise money for cancer research.
Angie is passionate about the benefits of sports and over the years has coached her young sons’ teams.
The RBI Community Service Award is named for Al “Moose” Clausen, who in 1982, joined the Mariners Front Office as Director of Sales. Moose retired in 2012. Due to his decades of service to baseball at all levels and the community, the RBI Club and Seattle Mariners named their Community Service Award for Moose in 2001.
Previous Moose Clausen Award Winners:
2001 Jamie Moyer
2002 Dan Wilson
2003 Edgar Martinez
2004 Jay Buhner
2005 Rick Rizzs & Dave Henderson
2006 Raul Ibanez
2007 Dave Valle
2008 John Olerud
2009 Howard Lincoln
2010 Bill Krueger
2011 Julio Cruz
2012 Jack Zduriencik
2013 Eric & Kate Wedge
2014 Michael Saunders
2015 Alvin Davis
2016 Charlie Furbush
2017 Bob Christofferson
2018 Rick Griffin
2019 Angie Mentink