Rockies announcer Jenny Cavnar used video games to practice play-by-play
Jenny Cavnar didn’t have long to prep before providing Colorado Rockies play-by-play. She found out she would have to fill the role the day before the game, so she didn’t have a lot of options to get in some last-minute practice before her play-by-play debut.
That’s when her husband hatched a plan, according to Joon Lee of Bleacher Report. He would play “MLB: The Show” and she would call his game.
B/R: How did you prepare for your historic regular-season play-by-play opportunity?
Cavnar: After I found out Sunday I was doing the game, that night I went home and my husband’s like, ‘How about I play MLB The Show, and I’ll play the Padres and the Rockies. You can call the video game.’ Besides spring training games I had done, I had minimal preparation.
That’s exactly what happened. They fired up the game, selected the San Diego Padres as the Rockies’ opponent — since that was the matchup Cavnar would call the next day — and gave it a shot.
It was a pretty creative solution to a potentially scary situation. As Cavnar admits in the article, there were some nerves before making her debut. Anything she could do to pass the time the night before her big moment was probably helpful. In this case, it wasn’t just a distraction. It provided her with some useful practice.
We also have to credit Cavnar’s husband for finding a way to play video games all night under the guise of helping his wife. It was a good suggestion that likely benefitted both parties.
The next day, Cavnar became one of the few women to provide play-by-play during a Major League Baseball television broadcast.
Video games may have been useful for Cavnar, but this was a unique situation. If you try to pull the “video games will help me at work” argument at home, we’re not sure it’s going to go over as well.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
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