SPORTS
Friday, January 25, 2019
East Oregonian
Encore: Storm and Kremer make
Amazon return for 2nd NFL season
By JOSH DUBOW
AP Pro Football Writer
Hannah Storm and
Andrea Kremer had so
much fun in their first sea-
son calling NFL games on
Amazon Prime that they are
coming back for an encore.
Amazon
announced
Thursday
the
veteran
announcing duo will return
next season to call the
Thursday night package
on Amazon’s prime video
service.
“It’s validation,” Kremer
said. “You want to be able
to show with actions not
just words that what we did
was meaningful and enter-
taining and people wanted
to watch and listen to us
and considered us a via-
ble option to the other great
choices that are out there.
The fact that Amazon made
this decision sooner than we
expected was just a real joy
to us and made us feel like
we were the right choice.”
Storm and Kremer were
hired last August to do the
11 Thursday night NFL
games on Amazon on an
alternate English-language
feed to those who wanted
something different from
the Fox broadcast with Joe
Buck and Troy Aikman.
Amazon did not release
numbers on how many peo-
ple chose to listen to Storm
and Kremer as opposed to
the Fox feed featuring Joe
Buck and Troy Aikman,
but head of live sports Jim
DeLorenzo said the feed-
back was extremely positive.
It was a new role for
both. Kremer spent most
of her career as an Emmy
Award-winning
reporter
who was honored by the Pro
Football Hall of Fame last
year with the Pete Rozelle
Radio-Television Award.
Storm has had a long
career as a studio host and
anchor, who had only lim-
ited play-by-play experience
on the WNBA.
But they both took the
opportunity to do some-
thing new, becoming the
Seattle Mariners
won’t promise spot to
Ichiro after Japan trip
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
Amazon via AP, File
In this Sept. 21, 2018, file photo, Andrea Kremer, left, and Hannah Storm pose for a portrait
at Pier 59 studios in New York.
first all-female booth to call
any major men’s team sport
in the United States.
“When you do something
no one has ever done before,
you open yourself up to a
certain level of risk because
you can be at times heav-
ily criticized,” Storm said.
“They’re people who might
not like the idea of women
doing football or basket-
ball or baseball. There will
always be people who push
back on something that is
not the norm. We wanted to
make sure we were comfort-
able with that element of it,
which we were.”
Storm and Kremer are
part of a trend of more
women getting the chance
to do play-by-play or analy-
sis on men’s sports.
Doris Burke has transi-
tioned from being solely a
sideline reporter to a role as
a game analyst on ESPN’s
NBA coverage. Jessica
Mendoza has been a lead
analyst on ESPN’s Sun-
day night baseball cover-
age since 2015. AJ Mleczko
went from covering wom-
en’s hockey at the Olympics
to analyzing NHL games
for NBC Sports Network.
Beth Mowins has called
NFL games as a play-by-
play announcer for both
CBS and ESPN.
“When Hannah and I
were discussing this, she said
to me, ‘If not us, then who,’”
Kremer said. “That’s pretty
significant. If we do this,
we’re opening up opportuni-
ties for other women. If we
don’t do it, that’s a respon-
sibility that we have. I hope
that more women get oppor-
tunities but I hope it’s the
right women for the right
reasons.”
The addition of an alter-
nate audio feed with Storm
and Kremer was the biggest
change in Amazon’s second
season streaming Thurs-
day night NFL games. After
making its debut in 2017, the
online retailer signed a two-
year, $130 million contract
last year to keep the stream-
ing rights to the games.
Amazon’s 11 games on
Prime Video and Twitch
reached 24.4 million total
viewers, a 33 percent
increase from its first sea-
son. The average audience
topped 500,000 per minute,
a 61 percent increase, with
the average viewer watching
for 59 minutes.
In all, more than 1 bil-
lion minutes of live NFL
game content was watched
on Prime Video and Twitch.
Amazon is expanding its
sports coverage with deals
in place for PGA Tour Live
and NBA League Pass, to
go along with deals in the
United Kingdom for ATP
Tennis and a small package
of Premier League soccer
games.
How much more live
sports the company bids for
remains to be seen.
“Any time that we’re
looking at additional oppor-
tunities, we’re always start-
ing with the customer to
see if it’s content that we
think they will really love,”
DeLorenzo said. “We are
still pretty early on in the
life cycle of Amazon offer-
ing live sporting events to
our customers. It’s been a
great learning experience
for us and we’re continuing
to look at the data to deter-
mine what we want to do
going forward.”
SEATTLE — The
plan seems to be in place
for Ichiro Suzuki to be
on the Seattle Mariners’
expanded roster when
they open the regular sea-
son with two games in his
native Japan.
After that?
Seattle general man-
ager Jerry Dipoto isn’t
promising anything to the
45-year-old, especially if
it gets in the way of devel-
oping some of the younger
players who are part of the
club’s rebuilding plans.
“First we have to envi-
sion him being on the
28-man when get to
Tokyo,” Dipoto said.
“Obviously we did agree
on a minor-league deal for
Ichiro to come to spring
training. We do have hope
when we break for Tokyo
he is healthy and ready
to go. If that is the case
we’re going to give him an
opportunity to play. But
this season for us is about
giving an opportunity to
young players.”
Suzuki was announced
as one of Seattle’s spring
training invitees on Thurs-
day after he agreed to a
minor league contract with
the club. If Suzuki is added
to the major league roster
— as is expected for the
games against the Oak-
land Athletics in Tokyo
on March 20 and 21 — he
would receive a one-year
contract paying $750,000
while in the major leagues.
But Dipoto made clear
on Thursday that develop-
ing younger players will be
critical as part of Seattle’s
intent to be able to contend
by the 2021 season.
“A lot of it is going to
be up to Ichiro. Our intent
with Ichiro is to bring one
of the great players in the
history of baseball ... back
to the playing field and see
what happens, especially
since this is what he wants
to do. We want to handle
Ichiro with all the respect
and gratitude in the world
for what he has done for
the Mariners organization
and really celebrate him
for what he has done glob-
ally for baseball,” Dipoto
said. “What happens
after we come back from
Tokyo? First we have to
ensure he’s healthy enough
to be on our roster in order
to go, but when we come
back our goal is to develop
our young players. I don’t
know how more clearly I
can say that.”
Suzuki started last sea-
son playing for the Mari-
ners but transitioned into
a front-office role as a spe-
cial assistant to the chair-
man that allowed him to
take part in pregame work-
outs and batting practice
but not to be in the dugout
during games. The move
ended his season abruptly
but with the knowledge
that Seattle was open-
ing 2019 in Japan, which
would be a highly antici-
pated opportunity for him
to play in his home coun-
try. Suzuki was hitting
.205 in 44 at-bats during
his limited action in 2018,
and all nine of his hits were
singles.
But Suzuki has worked
out through the offseason
with the intent of being
ready to open the 2019 sea-
son with the big league
club.
Suzuki was voted both
the 2001 AL Rookie of the
Year and MVP with the
Mariners and won a pair of
AL batting titles. He was
traded to the Yankees mid-
way through 2012, played
parts of three seasons with
New York, then spent three
seasons with Miami.
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