With the MLB season coming to an end, it’s never too late to put the spotlight on a female who is involved with baseball. Jessica Mendoza was a softball player during her high school and college years. Even though she is no longer a softball player, Mendoza now dedicates her career to ESPN as one of their analysts. As both an athlete and reporter, she has broken barriers and paved the way for women of all backgrounds to pursue their dreams.
Mendoza’s softball career is really what got her name out there. During her time at Stanford from 1999 to 2002, Mendoza broke and still holds many school records. She currently holds Stanford’s record for hits, home runs, slugging, runs and stolen bases. Mendoza was also named Stanford’s Athlete of the Year three times and graduated with a Masters degree in social sciences and education. Her softball career peaked when she was on Team USA for Softball at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. During both Olympic games, Mendoza was an outfielder and helped bring the USA a gold and silver medal.
Following her Olympic appearance in 2008, Mendoza would continue to play softball for the National Pro Fastpitch, or NPF. Mendoza would end up playing for the NPF for a few years, starting in 2005 and taking a short break before returning to play from 2010-2012. During her time with NPF, Mendoza would switch from the Arizona Heat to the USSSA Pride and would bring the USSSA Pride a Cowles Cup in 2010. While Mendoza clearly still has a spot in her heart for softball, she decided to take her talents elsewhere and took a job at ESPN.
While her job at ESPN might seem glamorous, it doesn’t come without its fair share of backlash. While Mendoza was known mostly for her analysis during Women’s College World Series and games on ESPNU, she was asked during August of this year to cover a game between the Cardinals and Diamondbacks, making her the first woman to sit in the booth and call a game. She was asked again to return for Sunday Night Baseball and the AL Wild Card Game in October where she became the first female analyst to cover an MLB postseason game.
However, the backlash came almost immediately after Mendoza was featured on the Wild Card game from an Atlanta radio host, Mike Bell. Bell took to Twitter to share his displeasure with Mendoza in a series of sexist and completely idiotic tweets, “Really? A women’s softball slugger as guest analyst on MLB Wildcard Game? Once again ESPN too frigging cute for their own good.” Bell thought he was particularly clever and referred to Mendoza as ‘Tits McGee’ but eventually ended up being suspended from his job while Mendoza took the high road.
Her statements on the backlash show how professional she is and how she deserves the job as much as any baseball player. “Yes, I am a female, but I want it to get to the point where, let’s think about what I am saying, what I am doing, and not so much the sex that I am. I want to get to a point when we hear a female voice on NBA, NFL, or just anything in men’s sports, and it is like, ‘Sweet. She’s doing a good job,” she said. This is what all females in sports really want. They want to be taken seriously for their work and not their gender which is something that Mendoza stood up for and why she is so important to the sports media community.
