When you’re sledgehammering ceilings and punching tired stereotypes in the doughy midsection, it can be hard to see the progress that is being made.
Other times, it’s right in front of you.
“I had a lady come up to me the other day who was probably in her 50s with tears in her eyes,” Jenny Cavnar, the primary play-by-play broadcaster for the A’s, said Wednesday at Petco Park. “That’s mind-blowing to me that it affected her as a sports fan to know her voice was being represented.”
Cavnar, who once worked Padres broadcasts for Cox Channel 4, is the first woman to serve as the primary play-by-play broadcaster for a Major League Baseball team.
Some days, the double standards are mixed in with the double plays.
How’s the history-making business going?
“Every day I feel inspired when I get to talk to young girls I see or even older women I see, who come up and feel proud,” said Cavnar, 41. “It feels like we’re all doing it together in a way.”
Blunting and muting the “can’t culture” can be exhausting.
Think about the dynamic days unfolding now in the WNBA, a league that barely ed ripples for most of its existence. They can’t fill arenas. They can’t drive TV ratings. They can’t be relevant.
Can’t.
It’s like trying to drive with the parking brake on, rather than burying a foot in the accelerator on the open road and seeing what that engine can do.
Can’t? Can.
“It started with my dad (Steve), when I told him that’s what I wanted to do, pointing at the TV and Melissa Stark,” Cavnar said. “He said, ‘Yeah, I could see you doing that.’ Just the belief.
“When a parent or a teacher or a mentor or a coach instills that in you at an early age, if someone tells you can’t, it’s not in your foundation as a person or human being.”
It has taken Cavnar 18 years in the business to reach this historic perch. Part of that path included San Diego, where she helped chronicle the Padres.
Yes, there are roadblocks and challenges. There also are those willing to offer a hand. Cavnar found those people at Petco Park.
“I credit (Padres broadcaster) Bob Scanlan with taking me under his wing and helping me in the Major League game,” Cavnar said. “No question was ever too dumb. We talked pitching and hitting all the time.
“People like (current TV analyst) Mark Grant and (national broadcaster) Matt Vasgersian. And getting to know (former Padres manager) Bud Black, learning from him, seeing what kind of a people person he is, how he builds relationships.”
The pressure builds, still.
When you make the type of history Cavnar has, the spotlight sharpens. The A’s gig landed her on the “Today” show, explaining the gravity of the moment to a national audience.
“I’m always the first one to put pressure on myself, whether it exists externally or not,” Cavnar said. “When you’re representing a greater idea, the pressure for me is I don’t want to disappoint all the women before me that opened the door a little bit more every time they took on a challenge.
“Now it’s my turn to open that door and keep it open for the next generation.”
Fly high enough and turbulence awaits.
“The first thing I did was detach myself from social media, because it’s not going to benefit me one way or the other,” Cavnar said. “People praising you or hating you, that’s not going to make me better. I have to rely on people that I trust in my inner circle for the critical .
“Quieting the noise is one of the first things I did. I know it’s out there. I know it exists. There’s not an ‘easy button’ doing something for the first time and creating change. It’s hard. You have to lean into that.”
Noise is almost all that swirls around the A’s, a 100-game loser the last two seasons with the lowest payroll in the game.
Stir in the fact that owner John Fisher has alienated the city and its fans by attempting to move the club to Las Vegas and there are potential distractions galore.
Cavnar tightens the focus to the field.
“A lot of it is not mine to approach,” she said. “I was hired to do play-by-play for a baseball game. What I can control is what’s happening on the field.
“I do understand what the A’s fans are going through. I’m not ignoring it. I don’t think we’re ignoring it on the broadcast, but all we can control is the game.”
The road map remains the same.
“I had to learn from a young age what my superpowers were in the game, especially when I was often the only female around,” Cavnar said. “That was being myself, building relationships and learning every day.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
