Mary Shane

Mary Shane (May 17, 1945 – November 1, 1987) was the first full-time female play by play broadcaster for a Major League Baseball team in 1977.

She was born Mary Driscoll in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the daughter of a former semi-pro baseball player. In 1967, she graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison with a B.A. in History. After college she became a history teacher at a Milwaukee high school for six years. In 1975, she decided for a career change and became a radio sportscaster at WRIT (now WJYI) in Milwaukee, where she covered the Brewers, the Bucks and the Marquette Warriors.[1]

In 1976, while working in the County Stadium press box for a White Sox - Brewers game, White Sox announcer Harry Caray was surprised to see a young woman in the press box and invited her to do some play-by-play.[2] Shane did well enough that he asked her to join the broadcast the next day and again on a subsequent White Sox visit to County Stadium.

In, 1977, WMAQ radio and WSNS - TV, the flagship stations for the Chicago White Sox, hired her to join the broadcast team which already included Caray, Lorn Brown and Jimmy Piersall.[3] However, Shane was pulled from the White Sox Broadcasts before the 1977 season concluded and her contract was not renewed.[4] While her voice was an issue, Mary distinguished herself as a hard worker.[4] Broadcasting partner Jimmy Piersall stated: “She never had a chance. Even a bad baseball player gets at least one full season to see if he’ll come around. But because of all the in-bred prejudice against a woman covering a baseball team, Mary didn’t even get that. It was a real shame, because I thought she had what it takes to make it. Someday, the idea of a woman bringing a woman’s perspective to baseball broadcasting will be a tremendous innovation somewhere.”[4]

In the 1980s, Shane worked in Worcester, Massachusetts as sportswriter for the Worcester Telegram, becoming the first female reporter to regularly cover the Boston Celtics, winning an award for her writing.[5] In her thirties, she became plagued by heart troubles and on November 1, 1987 at age 42 she died of a heart attack at her home in Worcester.[6]