Waldman defends herself

Suzyn Waldman is not backing down from her actions during Monday night's postgame show on WCBS-AM 880.

Suzyn Waldman was unapologetic yesterday for choking up and sobbing briefly in her report Monday night on WCBS-AM after the Indians knocked the Yankees out of the playoffs. “That’s who I am,” she said by telephone. “It’s unusual, but not for me. I am emotional. I’m a conduit between the players and the fans, and everyone was crying.”

She added: “That’s what I felt. I am who I am. I’m emotional. A lot of people like it, a lot of people don’t. I didn’t do it in a game, and I recovered.”

It would be easy to condemn Waldman for losing her composure, demonstrating her feelings for Manager Joe Torre and shedding her professional stance. But Waldman is not a standard analyst. She can get away with reacting in a way that a male counterpart might be ridiculed for. (“I cry at ‘Cinderella,’ ” she said in the moments before she sobbed.) She is an empathetic personality — her clubhouse demeanor is as much reporter as mother-confessor — so her catch-in-her-voice weeping about Torre’s probable departure was not surprising.

“There are a lot worse things than crying on the air,” she said. (The New York Times)

Her crying on air may not be surprising, but I still find it rather unprofessional.