Meet Isabelle Minasian from Lookout Landing

We have dozens of women covering pro and college sports for our team brands here at SB Nation. Meet one of those talented writers, Isabelle Minasian, who writes for our Mariners blog, Lookout Landing.

My mom is a big baseball fan; she was an early beneficiary of Title IX and played baseball when she was young, and has likely eaten more Dodger Dogs than she’d care to admit. I grew up playing softball, but insisted on using her ancient baseball glove until a coach gently suggested that I might have better luck catching softballs with a softball mitt. My Mariners fandom developed as a result of my quest to be “special” in elementary school — surrounded by A’s and Giants fans, I adopted the team of my birth state, with little regard for how profoundly this would shape the rest of my life.

Can I pick two? I’ll keep them short. 1) Being on a panel with Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, along with some of my fellow Mariners luminaries, for Lookout Landing Night last year. 2) Helping to raise over $8,000 for then-new Mariner Denard Span’s Foundation, which supports single parent families. That money, in particular, will help purchase a new car for a single parent family in need.

I’m going to assume this is alluding to my challenges as a woman, somewhat peripherally, in baseball, and not my eternal quest for a gluten free happy hour option at Safeco Field ... that said, I don’t think any of the challenges I’ve faced as a woman in baseball are particularly unique. If you are a woman or non-binary person who likes baseball — or any sport, really — you will intimately know the feeling of attempting to fake comfort in a space that is never quite yours. Your opinions (and often your facts) are questioned, the legitimacy of your fandom is questioned, your motives for even being in the sports space are questioned. You double and triple-check your stats, because any minor error could damage your carefully-won credibility; your work overall is simply more suspiciously regarded and critiqued. I’ve been extremely fortunate in my experiences thus far, but even still it can be taxing. Those bad days are when you just have to shut everything down and go outside to play some catch.

My senior thesis was on Roberto Clemente and his portrayal in the American media, which earned me a scholarship to SABR’s annual seminar and led me to realize that it was (maybe, kind of, sort of, hopefully) feasible for me to continue writing about baseball. I had read Lookout Landing for a number of years and had been communicating with some of the staff and community on Twitter, so when they put out a call for writers, I applied. I pitched myself as the Seth Smith of the staff, sample recapped an Adam Lind walk-off against the White Sox, and the rest was history (this is an immensely 2016 Mariners story).

We’re so lucky to live during a time when there are so many talented, diverse voices filling the sportswriting space. I’m immensely fortunate to work directly with one of the most talented women in baseball writing, Lookout Landing’s Managing Editor, Kate Preusser. Shannon Drayer, at 710 ESPN, is a true icon in the industry, and has a particular gift for coaxing the most compelling stories and quotes from players. I greatly admire Marly Rivera’s coverage of the great Latin players and their experiences, and Emma Baccellieri’s work is always a source of joy (even when she writes nice things about division rivals). Rachael McDaniel and Jen Mac Ramos don’t identify as women, but their writing is tremendous and I’ve learned so much from reading and conversing with them. And Mina Kimes doesn’t often write about baseball, but she belongs at the top of any modern sportswriting list, regardless of the parameters. I could go on for ages.