If these were normal times, the Atlanta Braves will have just wrapped a three-game series in New York playing the Mets. And Kelly Crull would have been there in her fourth week as the new Atlanta Braves sideline reporter for Fox Sports South.
In a phone interview this week from her parents' home in Indianapolis, Crull said her colleague Jeff Francoeur had an entire itinerary planned with a Broadway show and dinner for the broadcast team while in New York.
That obviously didn’t happen. “Such a shame,” she said.
Instead, Crull is in wait-and-see mode along with everyone involved in Major League Baseball. When will the season start if it will start at all? How will it work?
“Let’s pray we get some baseball in this year,” she said.
She spent six years as the sideline reporter for the Chicago Cubs with Comcast Sportsnet Chicago, on the field for the the Cubs’ first World Series win in 2016 since 1908.
She flew down fro the first time to the Atlanta Braves spring training facility March 8 to meet her new colleagues in North Point, Florida.
The day after, the team shut the clubhouse down, and she had to do interviews six feet from people. “At that point, we didn’t know what this was leading to,” she said. “But then they shut us down. I ended up going back to Chicago.”
Crull had found a place to live in Atlanta and was ready to move from Chicago when the pandemic hit. Her Chicago apartment was full of boxes. “It’s now servicing as a storage unit,” she said. She postponed her move and was able to delay her move-in date in Atlanta.
She also decided to go back to the suburbs of Indianapolis to help her parents out while the shelter-in-place rules are in order. When she was a kid in the area, she was super athletic, playing basketball and tennis. At the University of Missouri, she fell in love with TV sports journalism as well.
Following college, she covered Purdue sports at a TV station not far from her hometown in West Lafayette, then moved to Oklahoma City, where she landed a gig as a sideline reporter for the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team. At the time, the team had James Harden, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. She then spent a year covering the San Diego Padres before joining Comcast in Chicago.
Besides the warmer weather down South, Crull is excited to cover the Braves at a time when they are ascendant and expected to seriously compete for a World Series title.
Crull didn't get to meet all the Braves players during her brief visit to Florida, but she did get to talk to some of the young pitchers and was blown away how mature they are. She covered new veteran Braves pitcher Cole Hamels while he was with the Cubs and thinks he will a great mentor for the younger Braves pitchers.
She also met burgeoning superstar Ronald Acuna Jr. and the team glue Freddie Freeman.
Jason Heyward, former Brave and current Cubbie, vouched for her to Freeman and others, which she says never hurts.
“I’ve seen Freddie at All-Star games,” she said. “Such a pro. I am looking forward to getting to know him better.”
She is also excited to work with producer Gretchen Kaney. "She's a life-long Braves fan and one of the only female game producers in the league. I can't wait to get started with her."
Instead of interviewing players, she has spent time cleaning her parents’ bowling alley, cooking and running to stay in shape.
Crull earlier this year replaced Kelsey Wingert, whose unexplained departure from the Fox Sports broadcasting team roused a lot of negative ire from fans on social media.
“I really can empathize for Kelsey,” she said. “I was in Chicago six years. Someone is taking over there as well. People in Chicago are very loyal. They felt about me the same way fans felt about Kelsey. I respect Kelsey. I liked her a lot. She’s going to land on her feet.”
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