Who is Jessica Mendoza? ESPN's budding baseball broadcasting star
So maybe you haven't been paying a lot of attention to Major League Baseball (what's wrong with you?) down the stretch this season, and you checked in to ESPN's broadcast of the first postseason game Tuesday night between the New York Yankees and Houston Astros.
You might have found yourself asking who is the female voice providing stellar analysis and what is her background?
[Related: We ranked all 25 possible World Series matchups.]
She is Jessica Mendoza, a two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner with Team USA in softball and one of the best players in the history of the sport. She made her debut in the booth during a baseball game in August and did so well she earned a seat on Sunday Night Baseball and now covering the playoffs.
Mendoza was a four-time first-team All-American at Stanford. She retired from softball last year and was chosen to replace Curt Schilling by ESPN when he was suspended for an inappropriate tweets comparing Muslim extremists to the Nazi Party.
[Related: Check out our look at the National League Wild Card game.]
She already has plenty of fans, based on early reaction on Twitter to her first playoff game. And, predictably, there are a few nitwits who can't seem to find anything wrong with her doing the game other than the fact she is female.
Jessica Mendoza has made this simple for ESPN management: She should be a fulltime booth analyst on one of its MLB teams next year.
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) October 7, 2015
It's a treat listening to Jessica Mendoza. Good job, ESPN. #MLBPostseason
— Phillip_Ramirez (@Phillip_Ramirez) October 7, 2015
This Jessica Mendoza is again fabulous @espn Smart. Precise. Complete sentences. What a star. #PlayoffBaseball
— Bryan Burrough (@BryanBurrough) October 7, 2015
Jessica Mendoza is such a fresh voice in so many ways - doesn't seem constrained by "announcer-itis," which plagues so many. @jessmendoza
— Ben Mankiewicz (@BenMank77) October 7, 2015
And really @jessmendoza is one of the best MLB analysts out there. That breakdown of George Springer's swing was good stuff.
— Nick Gray (@ngray_63) October 7, 2015
This Jessica Mendoza is a better baseball analyst than 90% of the talking heads on MLB coverage.
— Will Manso (@WillManso) October 7, 2015
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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo