Former Sportswriter Reveals MLB Player Raped Her in 2002

By Joshua Summers First Posted: Jun 21, 2021 04:33 AM EDT

A former sportswriter, who specifically covered Texas Rangers, claimed that she was raped by a Major League Baseball (MLB) player in 2002.

Identified as Kat O'Brien, the sportswriter disclosed the sensitive information in an essay for the New York Times as she broke her silence after nearly two decades since the traumatic incident occurred.

Yahoo! Sports reported that the essay for the said outlet was published on Sunday, June 20, as the sports beat writer narrated how she became a victim and how she was sexually attacked.

MLB Player Raped a Sports Beat Writer in 2002

In the essay, Kat O'Brien noted that she did not share with anyone about what happened for 18 years and blamed herself for it as she lived in fear of the story going public.

New York Post reported that O'Brien knew once she told anyone about what happened, it would ruin her career as a former Newsday reporter working with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas at the time.

The rape incident happened in a hotel room while interviewing the unnamed MLB player for a story. At that time, the writer, who was 22 years old, was writing about foreign-born players and how they navigate life in the United States.

Kat O'Brien said the player he was interviewing at that time suddenly moved to kiss her.

"I said 'no, no, I don't want that,' but he pushed me over to the bed," the sportswriter wrote. O'Brien also claimed that as she tried to shove him, but he pushed further, got on top of her, pulled off her skirt, and had sex with her against her will.

The sportswriter also disclosed that she avoided jobs in cities that have teams who her rapist played for and higher-profile gigs to avoid crossing paths with her attacker, whom she alleged continued to play in MLB.

She also feared that the attacker shared the rape incident with his teammates, as an all-star player she ran into said her name and the name of his teammate, who raped her.

Kat O'Brien noted that maybe her "being too nice, too friendly, and open" led to the misunderstanding between her and the MLB player.

Despite sharing her story, the sportswriter did not name the MLB player who attacked her. She clarified that her attacker was not from the Texas Rangers, whom she covered during her time as a journalist.

Kat O'Brien took to Twitter to urge people not to guess who the alleged rapist was.

"The only thing I said was it was not a Ranger or Yankee. I did not say it was a foreign-born player," O'Brien tweeted. She also noted that she did not disclose clues beyond having a teammate who was an all-star.

Sportswriter's Motivation in Sharing Her Story

Nearly two decades after the alleged rape incident, Kat O'Brien shared that she was motivated after reading an article about New York Mets general manager getting fired for sexual harassment of a female reporter.

The sportswriter noted that reading accounts of other women who were sexually assaulted made her recall what happened to her. She added that she is no longer afraid of telling her story since she already left sports journalism.