The Houston Astros beat the New York Yankees last night in the American League wildcard game, and on ESPN Jessica Mendoza became the first woman to work as an analyst in an MLB postseason game for the broadcaster when she joined Dan Shulman and John Kruk in the broadcast booth.
Mendoza, 34, did a great job. She was smart, funny, and, as a former softball star and two-time Olympic gold medallist, knows her stuff: she was particularly adept in describing to the audience the more nuanced parts of the game. She bounced off another rookie commentator, Tampa Bay pitcher Chris Archer, who joined the trio as a guest analyst through the fifth inning. But for some people, the sound of a woman calling a postseason game was something sinful and iniquitous, and they made sure their indignation was noticed. The backlash was saddening, but predictable:
This guy is so INCENSED that a woman would be allowed near sports that he has tweeted at 59(!) strangers about it pic.twitter.com/Wz6B7kYqp9
— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) October 7, 2015
A woman made history tonight calling an MLB Playoff game for ESPN. This is what an Atlanta radio guy thought of it. pic.twitter.com/xf3Rc07EFY
— Boiled Sports (@BoiledSports) October 7, 2015
I'm sorry but this #JessicaMendoza is terrible. Terrible. It's bad enough #espn are rooting for the Astros without this. She's worthless
— James Manouse (@JimManouse) October 7, 2015
Mike Bell, incidentally is a popular Atlanta sports radio host. He was cranky all night about Mendoza’s inclusion in the broadcast booth, and tweeted his disdain numerous times:
Really? A women's softball slugger as guest analyst on MLB Wildcard Game? Once again ESPN too frigging cute for their own good.
— Mike Bell (@mikebell929) October 7, 2015
He offered an apology at the end of the game that seemed neither gracious nor sincere:
I've been trending for all the wrong reasons tonight. I apologize for calling Jessica Mendoza Tits McGee.
— Mike Bell (@mikebell929) October 7, 2015
Mendoza, a four-time first-team All-American when she played at Stanford University, is no stranger to sexism. She made history earlier this year as the first woman in the booth for an ESPN MLB broadcast – she replaced Curt Schilling, who was suspended for comparing Muslim extremists to Nazis – but revealed how many people had complained she was taking a job reserved for men.
“My mom got mad because some guy said, ‘You belong in the kitchen’, and that made me laugh,” she told ThinkProgress in August.
Female sports analysts have long faced discrimination. Suzyn Waldman, now a color commentator for the Yankees, became the first woman in history to broadcast a World Series game in 2009, but said she was stunned by the treatment she endured when she began working as a sportscaster in the 1980s.
“I’ve never had people hate me because I was a woman. It was a real shock to me,” Waldman told AdWeek in 2012. “I’d get used condoms in the mail and death threats. Horrible things happened in those first few years.”
Now, more women are working in sports, even if progress has been slow. Billy Beane’s Oakland A’s recently hired the first female coach in MLB, Becky Hammon works with the San Antonio Spurs, and Nancy Lieberman was hired by the Kings in the summer. But it seems that sports, even in 2015, hasn’t fully broken that barrier.
Thankfully, Mendoza did receive some positive feedback for her performance on Tuesday night, which was richly merited:
I mock ESPN for their zealous provincialism, but they scored big tonight using #JessicaMendoza in the broadcast booth. She's outstanding.
— Amos Magliocco (@amosmagliocco) October 7, 2015
Until I saw the typical Twitter outrage about it today, I didn't even think twice about Jessica Mendoza last night. She was tremendous.
— Ben Baskin (@Ben_Baskin) October 7, 2015
Not to be lost in the praise for Chris Archer, Jessica Mendoza is very good in the booth as well. Smart addition for ESPN.
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) October 7, 2015
Meg Rowley on Fox Sports wrote: “I’m just glad I got to hear Jessica Mendoza call a game. I’m glad the voice of the postseason sound a little bit like mine, because it makes me feel like I belong in this game. It makes me feel, if only for a moment, like we’re all pressing our noses against the same glass.”
