Ramona Leor Shelburne (born July 19, 1979) is an American sportswriter and NBA Insider for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. She is also a former softball player; in high school, she was the 1997 L.A. City Softball Co-Player of the Year, and in college she played outfield for

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the college athletics in the United States, athletic teams that represent Stanford University. Stanford's program has won 138 National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA team championships, the List of NCAA schools ...

for four years.

Early life

Shelburne is the daughter of James and Jeanette Shelburne, and is Jewish. She grew up in the West Hills neighborhood of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. She graduated from

El Camino Real High School El Camino Real Charter High School (also known locally as "ECR" or "Elco") is an independent charter secondary school located in the Woodland Hills district of the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California, United State ...

in Woodland Hills in 1997. There, she was a four-time All-City Selection in

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

, four-time member of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' All-Area team, and the 1997 L.A. City Softball Co-Player of the Year. Academically, she was a

National Merit The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships. The program is managed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded not-for-profit ...

Finalist,

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the class rank, highest-performing student of a graduation, graduating class of an academic institution in the United States. The valedictorian is generally determined by an academic institution's grade poin ...

, student body President, and graduated with a 4.21

GPA Grading in education is the application of standardized measurements to evaluate different levels of student achievement in a course. Grades can be expressed as letters (usually A to F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), percentages, or as num ...

. Shelburne received a softball scholarship and earned her bachelor's degree in American Studies and master's degree in Communication from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. At Stanford from 1998 to 2001, Shelburne was a three-time Academic

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

athlete in softball, and made appearances in both the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

tournament in the 1998 season and the

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States and is held annually in Oklahoma City, OK. The event is held at Devon Park (stadium), Devon Park loca ...

in the 2001 season. She played outfield for

for four years, and as a sophomore in 1999 she was selected to the academic All-

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

second team. Shelburne was softball teammates with ESPN baseball analyst

Jessica Mendoza Jessica Ofelia Mendoza (born November 11, 1980) is an American sportscaster and former softball player. Currently, she serves as an analyst for ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball and Los Angeles Dodgers coverage on Spectrum SportsNet LA. ...

at Stanford. In 1997, Shelburne submitted her first article on the men's golf tournament to ''The Stanford Daily'' in her freshman year at Stanford University.

Career

Prior to joining ESPN, Shelburne spent seven years at the ''

Los Angeles Daily News The ''Los Angeles Daily News'' is the second-largest-circulating paid daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California, after the unrelated ''Los Angeles Times'', and the flagship newspaper of the Southern California News Group, a branch of Colorado ...

'' as a reporter and columnist from 2002-2009. At ESPN, Ramona gained a national following writing about Frank and Jaime McCourt's divorce and the 2010-2011 Los Angeles Dodgers ownership dispute. On February 14, 2016, Shelburne made her radio debut in a national radio show called Beadle & Shelburne which she co-hosts with ESPN SportsNation host

Michelle Beadle Michelle Denise Beadle (born October 23, 1975) is an American sports reporter and host who is part of the San Antonio Spurs broadcast team. Beadle was formerly the co-host of the ESPN morning sports show '' Get Up!'' along with Jalen Rose and ...

Honors

In 2016 she was inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jews, American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distingui ...

Personal life

Ramona's mother Jeanette Shelburne was a professional screenwriter notably for animated children's television shows, and is a member of the Writers Guild of America. Shelburne has been married to her former ''

'' co-worker Nevin Barich since 2009. On October 2, 2018, the couple announced the birth of their first child, son Daniel Charlie Barich. On June 8, 2022, Shelburne gave birth to the couple's second child, son Jacob Bryan Barich.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelburne, Ramona 1979 births Living people American women sportswriters American women non-fiction writers Stanford Cardinal softball players Jewish American sportswriters ESPN people People from West Hills, Los Angeles Sportspeople from Los Angeles Sportswriters from California Softball players from California