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Historic all-women broadcast team calls Baltimore Orioles-Tampa Bay Rays for MLB Game of the Week on YouTube

MLB, Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays

In a first for Major League Baseball, a game featured an all-women broadcast crew when the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays played Tuesday night in Florida as part of the MLB Game of the Week on YouTube.

Melanie Newman, the Orioles' radio play-by-play announcer since last year, called the action while analyst and MLB.com writer Sarah Langs, who formerly worked in ESPN's Stats & Information group, was assigned as the in-booth analyst.

Alanna Rizzo was the on-field reporter, while Heidi Watney and Lauren Gardner anchored the pregame and postgame shows.

"This was so much FUN! Honored to be part of a historic moment, but more than anything, just so overjoyed to get to work alongside such strong, smart & inspiring as @MelanieLynneN , @alannarizzo , @LGRed & @HeidiWatney!" Langs tweeted after the game, which the Rays won 9-3. "Thanks so much to everyone who tuned in!! Baseball. THE best."

Gardner told MLB.com that the all-women crew "can't come soon enough," but also appreciates the milestone that she was a part of. 

"I [thought], 'This is awesome,'" Gardner told MLB.com. "Then someone said, 'You know, these are all women.' It took a minute for that to sink in, that we were going to be a part of history."

Newman started calling Orioles' games last August and made her YouTube play-by-play debut on June 22. She hopes that all-women broadcasts will become "normalcy" instead of "a novelty."

"My entire career, especially coming up through the minor leagues, I was the first woman at every single stop," Newman told MLB Network. "I couldn't help but think in the back of my head, 'That's great, but let's keep going. Let's move past being the first, and just make this more of a normal occasion that's coming around where we're not qualifying people based on their gender."

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