Paving a Path, Women in Baseball: Vanessa Lambert

[Ted Schwerzler]

With the front office and field operations covered on the Twins front, a behind the scenes look at how Twins baseball gets delivered is this weeks focus for the women in baseball series. Vanessa Lambert is a Producer with Fox Sports North and she’s the one that makes sure everything runs smoothly for the viewing audience. In a fan-less season, I’m not sure there’s a great position of importance.Lambert has been with Fox Sports North for 14 years now, and she’s been in the Producer role since 2012. Her focus is the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Timberwolves, which means right now she’s got 100% of her attention on one of the best teams in baseball. Working through the challenges of offsite production and given inputs dictated to them on the road, Fox Sports North is bringing Twins fans unprecedented access in an unprecedented season.

• Paving a Path Part 1: Britt Ghiroli
• Paving a Path Part 2: Melanie Newman
• Paving a Path Part 3: Rachel Luba
• Paving a Path Part 4: Emily Waldon
• Paving a Path Part 5: Kate Townley
• Paving a Path Part 6: Venika Streeter

Although you may occasionally hear Dick Bremer or one of his rotating analysts thank her near the end of the game, Vanessa largely flies under the radar. This was a great opportunity to have her step out into the spotlight, share her connection with the game of baseball, and put a focus on a woman that is literally making sure that the show goes on.

 

Twins Daily: You produce Twins (and Timberwolves games) for FOX Sports North. What exactly is the role of a producer?

 

Vanessa Lambert: This is probably the question I get asked the most about my job – no one seems to know what the heck a producer does. Easiest way to explain it is, I’m kind of like a head coach. I decide what we’re going to do (go to a replay and which angles to roll back, read a promo, knock out a sales element, go to break). The director is kind of like a quarterback, executing everything. It can be crazy and chaotic during a game with plenty of people talking to you at the same time, but that’s what makes this job fun.

 

My day starts early – basically I need to have as much done before we get to a ballpark as possible (for a normal 7pm game, we’re at the truck around 1pm). By that time, I need to have talked to the talent about what we’re going to discuss in the open and anything we want to hit on in-game, know what video packs and graphics need to be built, make sure sales elements are covered and planned, have all talent reads ready.

 

TD: You went to school for Journalism, was a career path in sports always the goal and how did it transition to more behind the scenes?

 

VL: I always wanted to go into sports television. Growing up in Detroit, I was a huge Red Wings and Tigers fan. Not to age myself, but the Wings won a few championships during my middle school & college years. My uncle has worked for ESPN for 20+ years and was on their ‘A’ NHL crew back in the day, so my family would stop by the truck to visit when he was in town. As an influential teenager, I thought, “hey, this might be a fun job”, so I started spending more time in the truck (my mom even let me skip school a couple times).

 

I went to Michigan State for college, and my options were either Journalism or Telecommunications. Within the J-School, you could specialize in a specific field, so I chose broadcast. I took all the TV classes but knew I didn’t want to be on-air. Something in production was always my goal.

 

TD: While not writing, you're telling stories in what is shown to fans during a telecast. What is most thrilling about this medium and the way you're able to convey it?

 

VL: I think what I enjoy most is you never know what’s going to happen in the course of a game…it comes down to reacting to what’s happening in front of you. It truly is a group effort to tell stories and be in sync with a director, graphics, tape ops and on-air talent.

 

You can plan as much as you want as far as graphics and video packs, but they may never make the show. You hope what you have ready can support what’s happening during the game and sometimes we can make everyone on the broadcast look like a genius when it works out.

 

TD: Specifically, as it relates to baseball, what draws you to this sport and how well do you think women are represented in positions surrounding it?

 

VL: I think I’ve always been drawn to baseball, and I blame my mom for that! I spent many nights at Tigers Stadium & Comerica Park watching games with her and keeping score. What I enjoy now is getting the chance to cover a team for an entire season, follow storylines all the way through, and getting to know the players and coaches (outside of this season

[operation mindcrime]

Another excellent interview!

[IndianaTwin]

I’ve really enjoyed these articles — thanks for the series, Ted. 

 

This may seem like splitting hairs because it’s a nuance, but I think of four of the stories as being more about “women in sports media” than “women in baseball.” (And “women in sports media” is also a worthy series, since that’s another place were women have been woefully under-represented.)

 

I think of it this way. For Lambert, for example, the logical career path is likely to be up the food chain to a network job doing the NFL and the Final Four, or even to the news side doing “60 Minutes.” I think it’s also telling that she says the Twins are a great organization to work “with” than “for.” It’s Fox that signs her paycheck, not MLB or the Twins. 

 

Now, if she was a producer for the Twins marketing/scoreboard/social media department with the natural path of moving up to be Twins Director of Media, I’d portray this differently. Or the producer slicing and dicing video to work at player development.

 

Again, that’s not to detract from the excellence of the articles. That you’ve needed to expand to include people like Lambert speaks to the paucity of women in the field. I’m also looking to watching the Diversity webinar to hear some additional stories about women.