Suzyn Waldman

Waldman was born in Newton, Massachusetts,[3] the daughter of Jeanne and Philip Waldman.[4] She loved baseball from childhood; she recalls going to a game with her grandfather when she was three and a half years old. She also has joked that she chose Simmons College because it was near Fenway Park. She graduated from Simmons with a degree in Economics.[5]

Prior to her broadcasting career, Waldman worked for many years as an actress and singer in musical theater. Her most notable role was as Dulcinea in Man of La Mancha.[6] Her rendition of "There Used To Be a Ballpark" appeared on historian David Pietrusza's 1995 WMHT-TV documentary Local Heroes: Baseball on Capital Region Diamonds.[7] Also, she has performed the National Anthem at many Yankee home games (most recently before a 2020 Yankees home game on July 31) as well as before Game 7 of the 1986 American League Championship Series at Fenway Park.

Waldman is considered a pioneer in the male-dominated field of sports broadcasting.[8][9] In the mid-1990s, she was a play-by-play announcer for the Yankees' local TV broadcasts on WPIX, which made her the second woman to serve in that capacity on TV for a major league team, after Gayle Gardner in 1993. In 2005, she was hired to do color commentary for Yankees baseball on WCBS Radio, partnering with John Sterling. According to the Yankees, Waldman was major league baseball's first full-time female color commentator.[10]

Waldman has worked in sports reporting for more than 30 years, as a former broadcaster for the YES Network as the reporter on the New York Yankees Pre-Game Show and the New York Yankees Post-Game Show and New York sports radio station WFAN. Her voice—on a live sports update—was the first heard on WFAN when it premiered on 1050 AM at 3:00 PM on July 1, 1987 (it moved to 660 AM a year later). At WFAN, she covered both the Yankees and the New York Knicks basketball teams and co-hosted the daily mid-day sports talk show.[11]

Waldman in 2014

Following the 2013 season, the Yankees moved their radio rights to WFAN, and announced that Waldman and John Sterling would return for their tenth year together in the booth.[12] She signed a two-year contract extension in February 2016 that ran through the 2017 season.

On December 16, 2017, Waldman signed a contract through the 2018 season.[13] She is currently under contract through the 2023 season.[14]

From June 29–30, 2019, Waldman called the first MLB games played in Europe, when the Yankees played the Red Sox in London.[15]

On September 9, 2023, Waldman hosted a "Question-and-Answer" event with the 1998 Yankees at the team's annual Old Timers' Day, which was held in lieu of the traditional exhibition game.[16]

Her long association with the Yankees has earned her the nickname "Ma Pinstripe" from New York Daily News writer Bob Raissman.[17]

In 1996, Waldman was diagnosed with breast cancer.[22] She sued Mount Sinai Hospital and two of its pathologists for misdiagnosing her as cancer-free, eventually winning over $2 million in damages from the case.[23] While her chemotherapy regimen limited (and eventually ended) her day-to-day role of broadcasting Yankees games on TV, she continued in her role at WFAN throughout her illness.[24] Her cancer has been in remission for several years.[25]

Waldman is currently a resident of Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County, New York.[26][27]

Waldman received an honorary Doctor of Journalism from Simmons University in May 2021.[28]

She was selected for induction into the Radio Hall of Fame on July 25, 2022.[29]

• New York Yankees biography
• Suzyn's reaction to the Roger Clemens signing
• Suzyn Waldman at IMDb