Tommy Birch|Des Moines Register
As Elise Menaker looks for the right words to describe how big of a Chicago Cubs fan she is, she scrolls through photos on her smartphone. Menaker, who needs a few minutes to track down the right one, finally finds an old picture from Oct. 15, 2003.
The picture, taken before Game 7 of the National League Championship Series between the Cubs and Florida Marlins at Wrigley Field, shows Menaker standing at the stadium seats holding up a specially made sign for pitcher Kerry Wood’s start that night.
“WORLD SERIES HERE WE COME…KNOCK ON WOOD.”
“I thought I was so clever,” Menaker said. “I wanted to get on TV. I wanted people to see my sign.”
Menaker didn’t get on television that night — nor did the Cubs make the World Series that year — but she will be on Thursday night's Iowa Cubs game. Menaker will serve as the lead color analyst for Iowa games on the Marquee Sports Network throughout the summer.
"I always say the ballpark is like my happy place," Menaker said. "It's where I feel most comfortable and confident. So, to get this opportunity in a role that I've been working hard at and I hope to continue to grow and learn at and be better at is super exciting."
The Cubs and baseball have been an important part of Menaker's life for a long time.
Menaker, an Illinois native, grew up riding the L-train with her family to Wrigley Field for games as part of a yearly tradition.Her father, Edward, played minor league baseball for the Baltimore Orioles. Menaker, along with her brother Mark, now an MLB agent, would go to a local park as kids and take batting practice with their dad. Edward would underhand tosses to his daughter. She'd then go out and shag balls when he'd toss pitches to her brother.
"I probably learned to throw a curve before a spiral," Menaker said.
Menaker went on to become a four-year starter forCornell University's softball team, where she was a three-time First-Team All-Ivy League pick and graduated as the school's career record holder for doubles. Sports have stayed with her.
After college, she landed an internship at a local television station in Illinois and covered ChicagoWhiteSox hurler Mark Buehrle's perfect game in 2009. Following the game, Menaker called her parents full of excitement having just watched baseball history. It was then that she realized she wanted a career covering baseball.
"They're like, 'Everyday at work isn't going to be like that,' and I'm like, 'I don't care,'" Menaker said. "I'm like, 'If this is the best day, then I'll take it and I'll take everything in between.'"
So that's what she's done ever since.Menaker, who had stops in Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin, covered the Bucks, Packers and Brewers. But the Cubs were always her passion. When Menaker found out the Cubs were launching their own network, she wanted to be a part of it.
Menaker washiredprior to the launch of the Marquee network in February of 2020 and has worked as a field reporter while also contributing to broadcasts and hosting pregame and postgame shows.
“Elise has been doing terrific work on Marquee, and we know she and (Iowa Cubs broadcaster) Alex Cohen will do a great job,”Mike Santini, Marquee’s senior vice president of programming and production, said in a statement.“We are proud of our new partnership with the Iowa Cubs here at Marquee, and look forward to working together with Alex, producer and director Justin Walters and the entire production team in Iowa.”
Menaker, whoalso serves as a studio host, football sideline reporter and softball analyst for the Big Ten Network,will get her first game analyst assignment with the network this week doing Thursday and Friday's Iowa Cubs games against the Columbus Clippers at Principal Park. Cohen, Iowa's play-by-play broadcaster, will join her in the booth.
It's part of a slate of 14 Iowa games the network planned to carry this season. She knows she'll be an instant idol to other womenwho want to have a career calling baseball games.
"I've never separated my job and seen myself as a female sports reporter, a female doing x, y, z," Menaker said. "I've always just thought of it as, I'm doing my job. But, I think as, quite frankly, what we've gone through in the last couple of years, it kind of opened my eyes more to that. And I think it's something that I'm proud of. It's also something that I've worked really hard at. And I hope that itinspires people."
Getting the chance to cover the game she loves and the team she's been following for years is the perfect job for her.
"I'm excited," she said.
Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018and 2020 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468. Follow him on Twitter @TommyBirch.
