Meet Sam Bradfield from Purple Row

We have dozens of women covering pro and college sports for our team brands here at SB Nation. Meet one of those talented writers, Sam Bradfield, who writes for our Rockies blog, Purple Row.

My grandfather was a HUGE baseball fan and took me to White Sox spring training when I was really little — even before I really remember! Whenever my grandparents would come to visit, my grandpa and I would play catch or tee ball in the backyard when it wasn’t too hot (we lived in Phoenix at that time). After he passed away, I lost a little bit of my interest, but my family still went to scattered games after we moved to Denver. When the Rockies went on their impossible Rocktober run in 2007, that really got me back into it.

I met some people in college who were really into baseball, but I started attending Arizona Fall League games when I moved to Phoenix full time a few years ago, and that’s when I became really passionate about the game again. It became a really great way for me to decompress, and I met a lot of really interesting people going to those games! Growing up in Colorado made me a Rockies fan, but living in Arizona has made it a bit more difficult to follow my team. Covering the Rockies for Purple Row gave me the perfect opportunity to really focus and follow them more closely even though I live 800 miles away.

I think my favorite experience has been spending time in the clubhouse with the Rockies PR staff, beat writers, and players. It’s been really cool to be able to meet a lot of the players I’ve watched over the years and I’ve started building relationships with some of them, as well as to getting to know the talented writers behind some of my favorite news.

Specifically, I enjoyed the interview process for my article about Rockies players who have some experience playing musical instruments. Over the course of about three or four games throughout the summer, I interviewed almost every player on the team about their experience. Even though many of them didn’t play, or at least not for very long, it gave me a chance to practice interviewing and just to talk to players about something unique other than baseball (which many of them appreciated). That was a really fun and rewarding process, and I certainly have learned a lot this season about what it takes to be a member of the media.

Some of the initial challenges that I faced were the fact that I go by Sam, so when I first started writing I had “Sam Bradfield” as my byline. People on the site thought I was a man and my friends were upset because they thought I was trying to pose as a man to gain respect or credibility, when honestly I was just using my nickname because I don’t like being called Samantha.

I think some other challenges I’ve faced have come from living in a different state, like many of the other Purple Row staff members. Luckily I live in a state with a division rival team and in one where the time difference isn’t egregious, if there is one at all, so I’m still able to keep up with the Rockies but I have to actively seek out news if I need it.

This is a funny story, actually. I was attending a Diamondbacks-Rockies game in Phoenix last September (2017) and met this couple who was visiting from Denver. We talked throughout the game and ended up friending each other on Facebook. The wife liked Purple Row on Facebook and some article that she had liked popped up on my page, so I decided to like the page as well. A few weeks later, our managing editor Eric posted a call for new writers and I applied and the rest is history!

I really look up to Jody Jackson from Fox Sports Arizona and Jenny Cavnar from AT&T SportsNet. When I moved to Phoenix, I spent a lot of time watching Diamondbacks games because they’re the local team, and I always admired how Jody presented herself on TV. She was really the first woman I watched on TV regularly who really covered sports and I really enjoy watching her and listening to interviews she does on the local radio from time to time.

When I started watching Rockies games again on MLB.tv, I got to watch Jenny a lot more and I’ve met her a few times when I’ve been around the team. I really admire how she conducts herself, both on TV as well as around the clubhouse. She is incredibly professional but also really easy to talk to. She was really helpful during spring training when I was still getting my feet under me. Of course, watching her do play-by-play this season was really cool, too, since she was the first woman to do it since 1993 to do that, but I just really admire her as a person and for everything she does for this team Denver baseball community.

Both of these women do an incredible job at covering their teams, and I really look to them for how to carry myself as a professional baseball woman. I really look forward to working more with Jenny in the future, and maybe sometime I’ll be able to meet Jody as well.