Marney Gellner appreciates — and sometimes downplays — her role as a broadcasting trailblazer

CHICAGO – A friend complimented Marney Gellner last week on her opportunity to serve as play-by-play broadcaster on Twins telecasts this week, the first woman to do so in franchise history.

“‘What a wonderful example for your daughter, to be able to see you’” make history, Gellner recounted of the conversation. “And I was like: ‘Yes, that’s true. And also for my son to see it, for boys to hear a woman call a baseball game and not go, “What?”' So both are true.”

That’s about as deep as Gellner, who spent more than a decade as the broadcast’s dugout reporter and pregame/postgame host, cares to delve into the groundbreaking nature of her call, alongside Justin Morneau and Denard Span, of Monday night’s game against the White Sox in Chicago for Bally Sports North.

“I’m super proud. Super proud,” she said. “And I’m just ready to get on with the game.”

That’s because the chance to fill in for Cory Provus feels like a natural progression, given her years of experience around the Twins, including calling a handful of spring training games, as well as 14 seasons as the voice of the Lynx.

“The way that [BSN colleagues] treat me is not as a female broadcaster; they just treat me as a broadcaster and a friend,” Gellner said. “And I forget about the part that it’s kind of rare.”

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Her Lynx duties kept her working courtside last Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so finding time to do her homework for this three-game series “has been a little bit of a challenge,” she said. She watched all three games of the Twins’ weekend series with Houston and reached out for a little expert advice, too.

Gellner said she contacted Provus and his longtime predecessor, Dick Bremer, for thoughts on timing, pronunciations, how to work with two partners instead of one. And as the day of her debut grew closer, her excitement level grew, too. And her appreciation for how far she’s come.

“I have vivid memories of when [her family], like in sixth grade, we would get in the Chevy Impala and drive from Minot [N.D., her hometown] to the Twin Cities, and that was a big deal. We’d do a couple games at the Metrodome on a weekend, maybe four times in my life,” Gellner said. “If I had ever known that that girl would now be sitting here calling the game, that would have blown my mind. Now it feels like it’s been a natural progression, but from that point, I would have been in complete disbelief.”

José Miranda didn’t set out to hit .700 last week, to drive in six runs in six games, to tie a major league record with 12 hits in 12 at-bats. He was busy just trying to stay in the major leagues.

Opening the season in Class AAA “gave me a lot of motivation, because obviously I knew where I wanted to be. My mentality was always about playing in the big leagues,” Miranda said Monday. “It’s even more motivating now than before. I’m working on getting better on both sides of the ball. I don’t want to go back.”

Having the best week of any player in the American League makes it way more likely that he’ll stay. Miranda was named AL Player of the Week on Monday, the second Twin in three weeks — Carlos Correa was similarly honored in June — to earn the award.

Does he win a trophy, a bonus, maybe a car? “Nope. Just congratulations, that’s pretty much it,” he said. “I get to keep playing, that’s my prize.”

* Brock Stewart flew to Louisville with the Saints on Monday and will pitch one inning or 20 pitches in their game Tuesday, the first outing of a rehab assignment. Stewart, out since May 1 because of shoulder soreness, will likely pitch a few more games before returning, though the Twins have finalized no plan for the righthander.