Marquee Sports Network hires Beth Mowins to be the first woman to call Cubs games

Jon “Boog” Sciambi was hired by Marquee Sports Network to call Cubs games this year, an excellent hire. ICYMI, here’s the interview I did with Boog earlier this month.

Since Boog has commitments to college basketball and baseball on radio for ESPN, the Cubs will need fill-in PBP announcers for around 30 games.

Wednesday, the Cubs announced the hire of the first-ever woman to call games for the team. Beth Mowins has been a broadcaster for ESPN since 1994, calling primarily men’s and women’s college sports, and in 2017 she became the first woman in 30 years to call a National Football League game. She has been the voice of the Women’s Softball College World Series for more than 20 years.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to work with such a beloved and historic franchise as the Chicago Cubs,” Mowins said in a statement. “I am thrilled to be a part of the team at Marquee Sports Network and am looking forward to working alongside some of the best in the business this season.”

“We are looking forward to another great season broadcasting Cubs games,” said Marquee Sports Network SVP Programming and Production, Michael Santini, in a statement. “We are excited to be welcoming in these new voices, including ‘Boog’, and are eager to get the season underway.”

Chris Myers, a longtime ESPN and Fox-TV announcer, and Cubs radio voice Pat Hughes will also fill in on some games. It’ll be cool to hear Pat’s voice on TV games from time to time.

“We are thrilled with these additions to the broadcast booth,” said Marquee Sports Network General Manager, Mike McCarthy in a statement. “We’re looking forward to our first season with ‘Boog’ on the call, and are thrilled to have Chris Myers, Pat Hughes and Beth Mowins as play-by-play broadcasters for select games. Chris, who has been with us since the launch, was scheduled to call games with us last season, but due to our precautionary approach to the pandemic, we were unable to make that happen. Pat is a legendary voice in Chicago who we are thrilled to bring to the TV viewers, and Beth is a groundbreaking announcer known to audiences for her NFL and collegiate work on ESPN. We are confident that all three will bring a tremendous energy to the broadcast booth this season.”

Congratulations to Marquee for the hire of Mowins to be the first woman to call Cubs games. I look forward to hearing her on the call.

The network also announced Wednesday that all 14 home spring training games at Sloan Park will be televised, though no away games. I’ll check around to see if other teams’ networks are covering the 14 away games. Marquee also posted a regular-season TV schedule that includes at least 149 games (with the rest on national networks).