The Kansas City Royals are adding a familiar name with deep local ties to their television coverage, bringing Bridget Howard back to the city where her passion for baseball and broadcasting first developed.
Howard has joined the Royals’ broadcast team as a host and sideline reporter for Royals.TV, marking a homecoming for the Kansas City native who grew up around the franchise through her family’s connection to the organization. The 27-year-old broadcaster will contribute to local home telecasts throughout the season while also joining the crew on select road coverage, including a May series in St. Louis.
For Howard, the opportunity represents far more than a new job in sports media. The Kansas City area has remained central to her personal and professional identity, even as her broadcasting career carried her across the country through a series of roles in college athletics and professional sports coverage.
Throughout those experiences, she consistently viewed the possibility of returning home to work for the Royals as a long-term goal.
“The Royals have always been a part of my life,” Howard said. “I understand what they mean to the city. And this job has always been the North Star for me. I always knew I wanted to work in baseball, and to be able to come home and do it for my hometown team, I still don’t even know if I can put it into words.”
Howard’s connection to the franchise extends beyond fandom. Her father, David Howard, spent seven seasons playing in Major League Baseball during the 1990s, including time with the Royals, and she grew up attending games in Kansas City.
One of her most memorable experiences as a fan came during the club’s 2014 postseason run, when she attended the dramatic Wild Card Game at Kauffman Stadium that ended with Salvador Perez delivering a walk-off hit down the third-base line.
Her presence on Royals broadcasts will also mark a milestone for the franchise. Howard becomes the first woman to appear regularly on the team’s television coverage, a distinction that she recognizes carries both visibility and responsibility.
“It isn’t lost on me,” Howard said. “This is a first, and people are going to look to you about how you’re going to do. For me, all I care about is if there’s a little girl watching and they see and can say, ‘Oh, that’s cool.’ It’s all about seeing what’s possible.”
Howard joins a broadcast lineup that returns its primary contributors from the previous season. Ryan Lefebvre and Jake Eisenberg will continue handling play-by-play duties, while analysts Rex Hudler and Jeremy Guthrie remain part of the game coverage. Joel Goldberg and Royals Hall of Famer Jeff Montgomery will again lead the network’s pregame and postgame programming.
Before joining the Royals, Howard built a diverse broadcasting resume that included roles as a studio host, sideline reporter and analyst with the Mountain West Conference, where she spent several seasons covering collegiate athletics. More recently, she worked with TNT Sports, contributing to football and basketball broadcasts involving the Mountain West and Big 12 conferences, while also covering women’s basketball and other events.
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