Melanie Newman

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Melanie Newman is an American sports broadcaster who works as a radio and TV play-by-play announcer and studio host for the Baltimore Orioles. She has also done national Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+. She is the Orioles’ first female play-by-play announcer and one of the few women doing MLB play-by-play today.

Education and early career
Newman grew up in Woodstock, Georgia, and went to Troy University, where she studied broadcast journalism. As a student, she announced Troy’s volleyball games and also called baseball and softball games. She graduated in 2013. She spent years in Minor League Baseball, including High-A and Double-A levels, and worked as a sideline reporter for Fox Sports Southwest. She was the play-by-play announcer for the Frisco RoughRiders (2014–2018) and the Salem Red Sox (2019), the latter as part of the first all-female broadcast team in professional baseball.

Orioles and other milestones
In 2020, Newman joined the Orioles’ broadcast team. Because of the pandemic, the season started late, and she made her Orioles debut on August 4, 2020, becoming the first woman to call a regular-season Orioles game on radio. She has also served as a sideline reporter and studio host for Orioles TV. On July 20, 2021, she was part of the first all-female Orioles broadcast team for a YouTube game against the Rays. On September 29, 2021, she teamed with Jessica Mendoza to call Dodgers-Padres for ESPN, marking the first time an all-female team called a nationally televised MLB game. In 2022, she was a play-by-play announcer for Apple TV+’s Friday Night Baseball. In 2023, she worked on the BBC’s coverage of MLB’s London Series. On September 8, 2024, she was part of the ROKU Sunday Leadoff broadcast booth for Rays v. Orioles.