SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Bridget Howard was sitting in the lower bowl close to the Royals’ dugout when Salvador Perez lined the walk-off hit down the third-base line in the 2014 Wild Card Game. She attended every World Series home game in 2014 and ‘15. Her dad, David, played seven seasons with the Royals in the 1990s, and she grew up in Kansas City, attending Blue Valley High School before going to Kansas State and playing on the inaugural women’s soccer team there.
Howard has traveled the country in different jobs since, but Kansas City has always been home.
Now she’s coming back to do a job that she calls the “North Star” for her -- something she always envisioned and kept at the forefront of her mind as she worked her way up through various broadcasting jobs.
The Royals have hired Howard as a host and sideline reporter for Royals.TV. The 27-year-old will join a crew that returns all of its members from last season, including Ryan Lefebvre and Jake Eisenberg on play-by-play duties, and analysts Rex Hudler and Jeremy Guthrie. Joel Goldberg and Royals Hall of Famer Jeff Montgomery will continue to host the pre- and postgame shows. Howard is scheduled to appear on all local home broadcasts, as well as one road series in St. Louis in May.
Her first game is the Royals’ first broadcast of the spring, on Thursday night against the Rangers.
“The Royals have always been a part of my life,” Howard said. “I understand what they mean to the city. And this job has always been the North Star for me. I always knew I wanted to work in baseball, and to be able to come home and do it for my hometown team, I still don’t even know if I can put it into words. It’s just an incredibly full-circle moment.”
The homecoming will also be historic: Howard will be the first woman to appear consistently on the Royals’ broadcast in the history of the franchise.
Being a “first” is both a tremendous feat and a tremendous responsibility. Howard understands that and has experience with it already, including when she was part of the first all-female broadcast team in a Power Five women’s basketball matchup in 2019, with all 16 positions of the crew filled by women.
She knows the challenges, but she also knows the opportunity.
“It isn’t lost on me,” she said. “This is a first, and people are going to look to you about how you’re going to do. For me, all I care about is if there’s a little girl watching and they see and can say, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ It’s all about seeing what’s possible. If I can do that and impact a little girl and make her want to be a sideline reporter or get into sports, that’s the coolest part for me. I’m proud to do that. I don’t know how to use another word other than cool, but I also know that it means everything to me. And to do it for the Royals is extra special.”
From a young age, Howard knew she wanted to chase opportunities in sports broadcasting because they combined her two favorite things: talking and sports. Talking about sports? It was the “perfect intersection,” she said.
Howard participated in the Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) program at Blue Valley, which introduced her to sports broadcasting. At Kansas State she studied mass communications and leadership studies, and worked her way to being on camera for K-State HD.TV across multiple sports featured on ESPN+ and other platforms. Her internships included FOX Sports LA, working on their MLB Whiparound Show, and the independent league Kansas City T-Bones (now Monarchs).
After graduating in December 2019, Howard was hired by the Mountain West Conference, where she spent parts of five years as a studio host, sideline reporter and color analyst.
Howard spent the past two years working for TNT Sports, where she was a sideline reporter for Mountain West and Big 12 college football and basketball games, as well as Unrivaled women’s basketball. She also did play-by-play announcing for the National Women’s Soccer League, Gainbridge Super League and select NCAA conference championships.
“I think it’s worth pointing out that she's got out there and she’s worked,” Goldberg said. “None of this was handed to her. She’s excellent at what she does, so she’s going to make us better. But beyond that, she comes from a baseball family. She grew up with this, so there’s just an extra layer there of knowing how this world works, how to interact with athletes and not make it bigger than it is. She’s well-suited to handle everything that comes her way, because I don’t think it’s going to be too big for her.”
This offseason, the Royals reached out to Howard about joining their broadcast team. Kansas City is debuting quite a few changes to its broadcast this year because of the MLB production, including new technology and access. Adding Howard’s voice is a part of that.
“From a chemistry standpoint, we’re going to gain something,” Goldberg said. “We have another voice, and we’re all going to be better because of it.”
Howard will bring new insight and perspective to the veteran crew she quite literally grew up watching and to a sport that has been ingrained in her since she was a baby and for a team she has loved her entire life.
“I hope what shows up is energy, preparation and storytelling,” she said. “My goal is always to enhance the broadcast, not interrupt it -- that’s how I’ve always tried to conduct myself on the sideline. And this isn’t just a job to me. I love Kansas City, I grew up in this city, and it’s such a massive responsibility to me to do well and to represent this organization well.”