Spring training is underway as Major League Baseball counts down to the start of the 2025 regular season, which kicks off in late March. A new season always brings renewed hope, as fans eagerly anticipate the possibility of their team becoming World Series champions. However, just a year ago, the Athletics made history by naming Jenny Cavnar their lead play-by-play voice on NBC Sports California.
Cavnar’s hiring marked a groundbreaking moment, making her the first woman to serve as a primary play-by-play announcer for an MLB team. She teamed up with Chris Caray on the broadcasts, who is the son of current St. Louis Cardinals announcer Chip Caray.
Now entering her second full season with the Athletics, Cavnar recently sat down for an interview on Redefined, a podcast produced by Front Office Sports. During the conversation, she reflected on the highlights and challenges of her first season in the booth. However, she also shared a growing concern as artificial intelligence continues to shape how people consume content.
“I think the hardest part for me this year is this new culture we’re entering into with AI,” Cavnar said on the podcast, hosted by Leslie Osborne and Arielle Houlihan. “Someone created an entire home run call that wasn’t even me, but it had my voice. All you need is seven seconds of someone’s voice to generate a full AI video, it’s this home run call of me just sounding like a complete dumb idiot girl in high school and calling the home run the wrong way.”
Due to these AI-generated clips and other forms of online social media criticism, Cavnar has decided to step back and be more aware in her approach on social media altogether.
“It’s okay if you don’t like me, or something I said on TV, or how I look—I’m over all that,” she said. “What’s not okay is talking about me when it’s not even me. It’s not real.”
Throughout her first full year in MLB, Cavnar recognized the challenges of being the first woman to call play-by-play in a sport with a predominantly older male audience. She spoke about the balancing act of appealing to that demographic while also working to bring in younger and more female fans.
“The one I always hear is, ‘I grew up listening to all these amazing voices, and she’s never going to be one of those,’” Cavnar said. “Yeah, I get it. I listened to all those amazing voices too. But I’m trying to be myself. That’s the beauty of having representation—a female voice in this game. There’s a huge female audience out there. There really is.”
Cavnar also acknowledges the ongoing generational shift in both baseball’s audience and how the game is presented. She expressed excitement about the growing presence of younger voices and personalities in the sport.
“We’re getting younger voices in the game,” Cavnar said. “Hopefully, that will bring a fresh perspective and change the way some audiences view baseball. It might even help attract a younger crowd.”
The Athletics will open their 2025 MLB season on Thursday, March 27, in Seattle against the Mariners. This year, their home games will be played Sutter Health Park which houses the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.
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