Susan Slusser is an American sportswriter who works for the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'', covering the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Early life

Slusser graduated from Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, California, where she did play-by-play announcing for the school radio station. She is a 1988 graduate of

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 ...

, with a double major in English and history. While at Stanford, she was the sports editor of the Stanford Daily and played

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

. She also called play-by-play Stanford baseball for the campus radio station, including the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is a baseball tournament held each June in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the culmination of the NCAA Division I baseball tournament—featuring 64 teams in the ...

, and served as a color commentator for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Career

Slusser previously worked for the ''

Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation in 2022 of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ' ...

'' in 1995 and 1996, covering the Texas Rangers of

(MLB). She also served as a beat writer in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

. She worked in

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

for the ''

Sacramento Bee ''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 2 ...

'', where she covered the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...

, and

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

for the ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region, in the United States. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by pare ...

'', where she covered the Orlando Magic. Beginning in 1999, Slusser worked for the ''

'', covering the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A's) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) American League We ...

of MLB. After more than two decades covering the A's, she became the San Francisco Giants beat writer for the ''Chronicle'' starting in 2021. Slusser was elected as the vice-president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) in October 2011. The next year, she was voted the president of the BBWAA, the first woman to serve in the role. In 2014, she was elected to the BBWAA board. She has published two books, ''100 Things A’s Fans Need to Know and Do Before They Die'' in 2014, and ''If These Walls Could Talk, Tales from the Oakland A’s Dugout, Locker Room and Press Box'', co-authored with Ken Korach, in 2019.

Awards

The National Sports Media Association named Slusser and fellow ''Chronicle'' sports scribe Ann Killion co-California Sportswriters of the Year in 2019. Slusser was the first team beat sportswriter to win the award. In 2017, she won a Northern California Area

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

for her work on "SportsTalk Live: Women in Sports Media". She has also won recognition from the San Francisco Press Club, the Peninsula Press Club, and the Association for Women in Sports Media.

Personal life

Slusser married sportswriter Dan Brown in 1999. They had met in 1990, when she was a reporter for the ''Bee'' and he was a

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

student reporter. During their first three years of marriage, she covered the A's for the ''Chronicle'' while he was covering the Giants for the ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

''. They divorced in 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slusser, Susan Living people American sports journalists American columnists San Francisco Chronicle people Orlando Sentinel people Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area Stanford University alumni The Dallas Morning News people The Mercury News people 1967 births American women sportswriters Sportswriters from California Baseball writers