What drove you to be a sports reporter?
I knew TV was what I wanted to do from an early age. Sports were always a big part of our family. My older sister planted the seed in my brain to cover sports as a paying job. I wanted to be like her. She was sweet, quiet, and smart. I’m loud and outgoing, so I just decided to go for it. I majored in broadcast journalism at Texas Tech, worked at Lubbock NBC affiliate KCBD first as a news reporter for two years and then as its sports director for four before working full-time at Fox Sports Southwest for nine years. I covered all of the local teams, had two kids, and started a business.
Tell me about the business.
My girlfriend Kelly Smith gave me a cool faux-leather play mat she’d made. My kid lived on it for five months before he could walk. We thought it would be a cool business, because we couldn’t find other sophisticated and stylish baby products. We founded Posh Play in 2012. We manufacture play mats, diaper clutches, changing pads, and bibs. It’s been a huge challenge. Sometimes I get home from the ballpark at midnight, get on Skype with my Google translator, and call the manufacturer in China. It’s insane.
Is that why you decided to step away from Fox Sports Southwest?
After I had my second child, in 2013, and the business was picking up, I was prepared to say goodbye to TV. It had been a good 15-year run, and I couldn’t pull off the schedule and keep my family intact. I left Fox thinking I was done, but then the Rangers asked me to work for them exclusively during the baseball season. We came up with a plan that worked for both of us. It’s a nice balance for me. This will be my third season working for them.
You seem so comfortable with the players during the on-field interviews. How did that camaraderie develop?
It helps that the season is long and you spend a lot of time around them. I was in the well [press area on the field] during both of my pregnancies, and we started trading parenting advice. There are two groups of guys on the team. There is a group who are like my brothers—Mitch [Moreland] and Colby [Lewis] and their wives. Then there is Derek [Holland], Roogie [Rougned Odor], and Elvis [Andrus], who are like my kids. Derek calls me “Mom.” They know they can joke around with me.
Elvis proved that when he doused you with Powerade during a live TV postgame interview with Josh Hamilton.
Elvis has been trying to get me for seven years. I can’t believe I didn’t see him coming. I was in total shock. I’m also shocked I didn’t cuss, because I have a mouth like a sailor. The guys are always stealing my purse and hiding it somewhere or trying to hit me with shaving-cream pies, and usually I’m good at getting out of the way. I was wearing a cream-colored sheer dress I’d worn to one of my wedding showers. All I could think of is what was showing. I covered up as much as I could with a towel, and Josh and I powered on through. Elvis felt so bad, he wrote me a check for $1,000.
That dress is almost as famous as Monica Lewinsky’s. Do you still have it?
I’m the president of the Do It For Durrett Foundation, an organization we formed after the untimely death of ESPN baseball beat writer Richard Durrett. I turned Elvis’ check over to the cause. I had Elvis and Josh sign the dress, and we auctioned it off at the first benefit. But I’ve warned Elvis he’d better watch his back.
