Betty Caywood

Betty Caywood Bushman (March 10, 1931 – September 3, 2020)[1] was an American sportscaster. She was one of the first female Major League Baseball broadcasters, providing color commentary on radio broadcasts for the Kansas City Athletics in September, 1964.

Caywood had previously worked as a weather reporter on a Chicago television station. On September 16, 1964, Caywood was hired by Athletics' owner Charles Finley to provide a female perspective on the games.[2] Caywood provided color commentary while Monte Moore and George Bryson provided the play by play.[2] Baseball author Bill James wrote of Caywood in his 1986 Baseball Abstract "Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having a woman announcer but it would help if she was a baseball fan'.[3] She did not return to the broadcasts in 1965.

Caywood was born in Chicago grew up in Kansas City, Missouri where she graduated from Westport High School in 1948[1] and graduated from Marymount College in Salina, Kansas. She later earned a master's degree in speech therapy from Northwestern University.[4]

Caywood, then known as Betty Caywood Bushman, returned to the baseball broadcast booth on August 16, 2008, joining the WHB radio broadcast of games for the independent baseball team, the Kansas City T-Bones.[5]

Caywood died on September 3, 2020.[6]

References
  1. http://midtownkcpost.com/first-woman-baseball-commentator-lives-in-the-plaza/
  2. Finley Signs Woman As KC Broadcaster. Fresno Bee Republican, September 17, 1964.
  3. James, Bill (1986). The Bill James Baseball Abstract 1986. Ballantine Books. p. 45.
  4. Babe Invades Boyland. Gary Pauley. Fresno Bee Republican, September 29, 1964.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-10-02. Retrieved 2008-09-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Betty Bushman - Obituary". www.legacy.com. Retrieved 11 September 2020.


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