Cincinnati native Annie Sabo — daughter of Chris Sabo, the Reds 1988 Rookie of the Year and third baseman for the 1990 World Champion team — is coming home to co-host some Reds Live pregame and postgame shows on Bally Sports Ohio.
"It’s a dream opportunity for me that holds special meaning given what my Dad was able to accomplish with the Reds,” says Sabo, who has worked for Bally Sports in Minneapolis, the Big Ten Network, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and TV stations in Tampa and Texas.
"I’m sure he’ll be in attendance once or twice, and I can’t wait to be back in the city that raised me."
Sabo makes her Reds Live debut at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 7, when the Reds open the season with a four-game series in Atlanta. The Reds are starting on the road because of the owners' 99-day lockout of players as they negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement.
Bally Sports Ohio has not announced its Reds TV schedule or plans for telecasting the Reds' home Opening Day game or parade on Tuesday, April 12. Bally Sports also did not say exactly how many dates Sabo will appear on Reds Live.
The announcement says she "may be best known from the Big Ten Network’s Tailgate show and her two seasons spent covering the Minnesota Twins and Timberwolves for Bally Sports North."
Sabo, who grew up in Montgomery, spent "many summers at Great American Ball Park supporting her hometown team, and her passion for Reds baseball runs deep," according to the Bally Sports announcement.
Her father was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame in 2010. The Michigan native made the 1988 Opening Day starting lineup due to Buddy Bell's injury and went on to win the 1988 National League Rookie of the Year Award. In the 1990 World Series, he hit .563 and led the Reds in home runs (2) and hits (9). He was an All-Star three times during his Reds career. He played for the Reds 1988-93 and in 1996.
Like her dad, Annie Sabo attended the University of Michigan. After graduating in 2015, she worked as a TV sports anchor-reporter in Corpus Christi, Texas, for two years, then took a similar position at WLFA-TV in Tampa in 2017. While in Tampa, she also covered the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea for Nexstar TV stations, and did in-game segments in the stadium during Tampa Bay Buccaneers games.
She left Tampa in 2019 to be a Bally Sports pregame/postgame host in Minneapolis for two years. She joined the Big Ten Network in August 2021.
“Annie is someone we have been tracking for a number of years, and we could not be happier to add her to our Bally Sports Ohio broadcast team,” said Randy Stephens, Bally Sports Ohio’s senior vice president and general manager in the media release. "She is an accomplished broadcaster in her own right, while her family connection to Cincinnati and the Reds is a bonus that helps make her an absolutely perfect fit."
