Waldman was born in Newton, Massachusetts, and she graduated from Simmons College with a degree in Economics. Prior to her broadcasting career, Waldman worked for many years as an actress and singer in musical theatre. Her most notable role was as Dulcinea in Man of La Mancha. Her rendition of "There Used To Be a Ballpark" appeared on historian David Pietrusza's 1995 WMHT-TV documentary Local Heroes: Baseball on Capital Region Diamonds. Also, she has performed the National Anthem at many Yankee home games as well as the 1986 ALCS Championship game 7 at Fenway Park.
Broadcasting career
Waldman is considered a pioneer in the male-dominated field of sports broadcasting. She is the third woman in Major League Baseball history to serve as a full-time color commentator on a regular basis, after Betty Caywood in 1964 and Mary Shane in 1977. In the mid-1990s, she was a play-by-play announcer for the Yankees' local TV broadcasts on WPIX, which made her the second woman to serve in that capacity on TV for a major league team, after Gayle Gardner in 1993. She has worked in sports reporting for more than 30 years, as a former broadcaster for the YES Network as the reporter on the New York Yankees Pre-Game Show and the New York Yankees Post-Game Show and New York sports radio station WFAN. Her voice—on a live sports update—was the first heard on WFAN when it premiered on 1050 AM at 3:00 PM on July 1, 1987. At WFAN, she covered both the Yankees and the New York Knicksbasketball teams and co-hosted the daily mid-day sports talk show. Following the 2013 season, the Yankees moved their radio rights to WFAN, and announced that Waldman and John Sterling would return for their tenth year together in the booth. She signed a two-year contract extension in February 2016 that ran through the 2017 season. On December 16, 2017, Waldman signed a contract through the 2018 season. She is currently under contract through the 2020 season.
At the start of the 1987 Major League Baseball season, Toronto Blue Jaysoutfielder George Bell was not talking to the New York media, thinking they had cost him the Most Valuable Player award the year earlier. He broke his silence after a win at Yankee Stadium, and the regular beat writers hurriedly gathered around his locker. New on the beat, Waldman joined the group; Bell immediately started screaming at her in Spanish and English. "There was a deathly silence. I think the other writers were shocked, but I also think they still resented me more than a bit, and they certainly didn't want to lose this interview," she recalled on a radio show. "At the time I was a little less tough than I am now. Tears welled up in my eyes and I said I better get out of there." As she hastily gathered her tape recorder and notebook, she heard Bell's fellow outfielder, Jesse Barfield, ask a fellow writer, "What's her name?" When told, he then called out to her: "Suzyn, I went three for four today. Don’t you want to ask me any questions?" Waldman and Barfield, now a baseball announcer himself, became friends and have remained close since then.
Yogi BerraGeorge Steinbrenner feud
In 1985, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner sent his general manager, Clyde King, to fire manager Yogi Berra. This greatly angered Berra because in his previous firings, the team owner had personally delivered the news. Yogi vowed not to visit Yankee Stadium and not to participate in any Yankee function as long as George Steinbrenner was the owner of the Yankees. In 1999, Suzyn Waldman helped arrange a meeting between the two men that brought an end to the 14-year feud. Yogi returned on Opening Day of the 1999 season, a day also designated as "Joe DiMaggio Day."
Personal life
In 1996, Waldman was diagnosed with breast cancer. She sued Mount Sinai Hospital and two of its pathologists for misdiagnosing her as cancer-free, eventually winning over $2 million in damages from the case. While her chemotherapy regimen limited her day-to-day role of broadcasting Yankees games on TV, she continued in her role at WFAN throughout her illness. Her cancer has been in remission for several years. Waldman is currently a resident of Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County, New York.
