This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian's Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CHICAGO -- Each of the women who will have a hand in covering Sunday’s Cubs game against the Angels have played a role for Marquee Sports Network over the past few seasons. When they assemble as a team for this special broadcast, they will make history together.
Veteran voice Beth Mowins will be in the booth to handle play-by-play duties, alongside Elise Menaker, who will provide the in-game analysis. Taylor McGregor will work as the field reporter, rounding out the first all-female broadcast in the history of the Chicago Cubs.
“It's a huge honor,” Menaker said. “It's something that when I first started in this industry, I couldn't even probably wrap my head around something like this. But now that it's here and coming up, it's huge. It's cool, because the three of us are normally in those roles. It's just that now we're being put together in them.
“And I think that's maybe the best part about it is we can all get comfortable. We know each other well. We love working together. And I think there will be a great energy about it for that reason.”
Marquee plans on using the broadcast as an opportunity to celebrate women in baseball throughout its pregame and postgame shows, as well as across its social and digital platforms. Marquee is also going to include play-by-play calls submitted by young Cubs fans, while giving opportunities for fans to engage with the broadcasters via social media leading up to the game.
Mowins made history as the first woman to call a regular-season game for the Cubs in 2021, and spoke about how influential it was in her youth to see Phyllis George as a sportscaster on "The NFL Today" on CBS. McGregor noted how seeing the likes of Charissa Thompson and Alanna Rizzo on Colorado Rockies broadcasts helped spark her career path.
“It was a female voice for me to look to and say, 'Wow, that's a job that I can do,’” McGregor said. “So now, the fact that there will be a woman as a play-by-play [announcer], as an analyst and as a reporter, I just hope that young boys and girls can sit at home, fall in love with the game and dream up careers for themselves.
“That's really what I take pride in with this whole experience is just hopefully empowering and motivating the next generation and showing them how many jobs there are in this sport. I would never have thought of this job for myself had I not seen a woman in this role.”
Menaker broke into the business on the news side, but she wanted to find a place in sports. Earlier in her career, she landed a sports reporting job at WTMJ in Milwaukee. When Menaker was hired for that job, she felt immense gratitude for Jessie Garcia, who broke a barrier as the first woman sports anchor in the state of Wisconsin.
“She is someone I look up to tremendously,” Menaker said. “Because that’s when it hit me. I remember when I got that job, without her, there’s no me. This job is not even here in this state without her.”
All the women who served as inspirational figures or mentors along the respective paths of Mowins, Menaker and McGregor have now played a part in Sunday’s piece of history on the North Side.
“I’m thrilled that we will have this opportunity to work together for this,” Mowins said in Marquee’s release. “It’s always an honor working in the Wrigley Field broadcast booth and we are all looking forward to this special broadcast.”