Brewers sideline reporter Sophia Minnaert deserves some recognition for keeping her cool during a live broadcast as she was hit by a errant baseball and kept reporting. The incident occurred in-between innings during the Brewers 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night.
Though many have speculated that it was a foul ball that hit Minnaert, Yahoo! Sports reviewed the incident and made it known it was an errant throw. Though they are not sure exactly how it happened, Mark Townsend of the Big League Stew sports blog on Yahoo! believes it was simply a toss from a player who was trying to give a lucky fan a game ball.
Instead, he made Sophia Minnaert’s job that much harder as the throw knocked the microphone from her hands in the middle of the live broadcast. The shot to the hands must of been a shock, but it didn’t stop the Fox Sports Wisconsin reporter from finishing her mid-inning segment.
Pro reporting at it’s best, running live coverage during a ballgame can be stressful at times and a reporter must keep focused on the camera instead of the field. It isn’t too common for a reporter to get hit by an errant throw or foul ball, but Minnaert never lost her cool and picked back up her mic before finishing off the report.
The rare incident proved Minnaert’s impressive reporting, as she immediately collected herself and wasn’t phased one bit. In a time where baseball broadcasts are full of errors, including completely botching players’ names and teams , Minnaert managed to pull off the embarrassing situation like a professional.
After her report was all said and done, she took to Twitter and played it off smooth by joking about the entire ordeal.
Talking #Brewers defense so figured I’d play a little defense of my own. Appreciate all of the tweets!
— Sophia Minnaert (@SophiaMinnaert) May 25, 2013
Have you ever seen a reporter play off an embarrassing scene as well as Sophia Minnaert?