Jessica Mendoza becomes first female MLB broadcaster on ESPN
History was made Monday night, when Jessica Mendoza became the first woman to broadcast an MLB game for ESPN.
By
Mike Axisa
•
1 min read
Monday night, history was made during the Cardinals vs. Diamondbacks game (STL 5, ARI 3). Jessica Mendoza became the first woman to broadcast an MLB game for ESPN, which has been broadcasting baseball games for 35 years now.
Mendoza joined play-by-play man Dave O'Brien and fellow analyst Dallas Braden in the booth. She filled in for Aaron Boone, who is now broadcasting the Little League World Series. You can see video of Mendoza breaking down Yadier Molina's big two-run single right here.
"I just want to make sure I do a really good job," said Mendoza in an interview with Allure Magazine. "I'm assuming the average baseball viewer is going to notice and think, 'Okay, this is a female voice. I haven't heard this before.' I want to come in and do my thing. I want to be who I am -- I don't want to change that -- but I want to make sure I am extra knowledgeable and prepared so I can maybe bring something extra. I'd love for someone listening to be like, 'Wow, I didn't know that.'"
By no means is Mendoza unqualified or new to television. She played at Stanford and helped the US women's softball team to a gold medal during the 2004 Olympics as well as a silver medal during the 2008 Olympics. Mendoza has also broadcast College World Series games for ESPN and served as an analyst on their nightly recap show Baseball Tonight.
"The attention it got was awesome," Mendoza said in the Allure interview. "It would also be really cool to just get to the point where people think, 'Oh wow, she knows her stuff. And he knows his stuff.' It should be common knowledge that women and men can talk about sports."
Mendoza has been with ESPN since 2014.
