Marney Gellner makes Twins broadcast history and delivers 'Better call mama' home run call
Marney Gellner made more history the past three days as she became the first woman to do play-by-play for a Minnesota Twins broadcast, calling games for Fox Sports North and WCCO Radio Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
"It meant a lot to me professionally, but I didn't make a bigger deal out of it because I honestly don't look at myself as a female broadcaster. I just consider myself a broadcaster," Gellner told WCCO Radio.
"I understand that this was unique because the Twins have never had a woman call the game. From here on out maybe this will just be normal. There will be a broadcasting change. Sometimes it'll be a female, sometimes it won't and it won't be that big of a deal."
Leading up to her achievement she asked fans what they thought about her using a catch phrase in her home run calls, and responses were overwhelmingly supportive of the idea.
It appears Twins fans are cool with a home run call but now I think I’ve oversold it and my call is gonna be so underwhelming but now I’m committed and I’m just gonna have to go for it and brace for the disappointment but I’m ok with that. https://t.co/5OBTCZd2sz
— Marney Gellner (@MarneyGellner) March 1, 2019
It took a while to get Gellner's home run call because she was trading innings with longtime Twins radio broadcaster Dan Gladden, but when it came Monday, it was worth the wait.
"Better call mama," Gellner said casually after C.J. Cron homered.
"BETTER CALL MAMA!" - @MarneyGellner's home run call 💯
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) March 4, 2019
📺: https://t.co/OmpAiQhGHu pic.twitter.com/C0JcXxXNRv
Cron wasn't done. Neither was Gellner, who flexed a verbal variation with a "call your mama" tag on Cron's second homer of the day.
CALL 👏 YOUR 👏 MAMA 👏
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) March 4, 2019
Another @MarneyGellner home run call thanks to @Twins slugger C.J. Cron!
📺: https://t.co/OmpAiQhGHu pic.twitter.com/CqcuMzEOtp
Gellner also made history by doing play-by-play for two Timberwolves games on Fox Sports North in December and February, becoming just the second woman to do play-by-play for an NBA game.
The North Dakota native has been with Fox Sports North for 16 years and has been the voice of the Minnesota Lynx for the past nine seasons.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.