Anita Marie Martini was an American sports journalist and broadcaster.
16 Facts About Anita Martini
1.
2.
Anita Martini was the first woman to cover a Major League Baseball All-Star Game and the first female journalist allowed into a baseball locker room.
3.
Anita Martini was born in Galveston, Texas, where her father operated the holding corporation of the historic Anita Martini Theater at 524 Moody Avenue.
4.
Anita Martini was exposed to baseball as a young child; her uncle, Buck Fausett, was a professional baseball player, and she would often accompany him to ballparks.
5.
Anita Martini was educated at Ursuline Academy, a local private school.
6.
Anita Martini got married and moved to Houston after that, but was divorced.
7.
Anita Martini was the first woman in a major radio market to co-host a sports talk show.
8.
On October 1,1974, immediately after the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Houston Astros to finish in first place in win the National League West division title, Anita Martini lined up with male reporters to enter the Dodgers locker room.
9.
Anita Martini asked to speak with Dodgers manager Walter Alston, and Alston allowed her to come into the locker room.
10.
Anita Martini conducted interviews that day with Alston and with Dodgers players Steve Garvey and Jimmy Wynn.
11.
Anita Martini had a long tenure in Houston, but in a 1975 interview with Sports Illustrated, she expressed disappointment at not getting a chance at a national broadcasting job: "What burns me is the networks are looking for women to accomplish something their men haven't done yet," she says.
12.
Anita Martini asked some questions for a 1990 ESPN special, but she was not seen on camera.
13.
Anita Martini was diagnosed with brain cancer and underwent brain surgery in April 1989.
14.
Anita Martini experienced partial paralysis on one side of her body after the procedure, but she hosted a radio show from the hospital the day after her surgery.
15.
Anita Martini's health took a turn for the worse around May 1993, and she died of cancer in July of that year.
16.
Anita Martini was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2015.