Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and baseball fans of all ages…
I have one thing to say.
Put a sock in it about Jessica Mendoza!
If you are not a baseball, softball, and/or sports fan at all, firstly, I am so sorry, but alas, I'll fill you in. Jessica Mendoza is a former Olympic champion softball player who is now a broadcaster for ESPN. Most recently, she featured as a broadcaster for the Women’s Softball College World Series, as well as 'Sunday Night Baseball' for Major League Baseball. However, as soon as she commentated her first baseball game, my Twitter feed blew up with people complaining about her. Instead of focusing on how cool it is finally having a female broadcaster for MLB, people just wanted her to “shut up” because she “doesn’t know baseball.” Fox Sports Radio’s tweet even took it a step further saying, “ESPN’s Jessica Mendoza is the worst. If she was a man, she’d already be fired,” but they deleted the tweet shortly after.
Nonetheless, from the majority of those statements, I gathered the reason people think Jessica Mendoza doesn’t know baseball is she never played baseball.
Just going out on a limb here… but I assume 99.9 percent of the male broadcasters, and umpires, and coaches for fast pitch softball never played fast pitch a day in their lives. That must mean they don’t know anything about softball, right? Perhaps they played baseball, but it is “not the same” as softball, so they automatically aren’t qualified, and they are absolute garbage at their jobs. Make sense? No? That's what I thought.
I am a former college softball player, and I never played baseball, but if I watch a baseball game, I know what’s happening. The pitcher pitches the ball, the batter hits it, he runs the bases, and then he gets home and scores a run. It is the basic premise for baseball and softball. Yes, the two games have differences, pitching being the most obvious, but regardless, most softball players know just as much about baseball as baseball players know about softball. Jessica is not as loud and outspoken as the male broadcasters, but she brings a unique perspective to baseball no one has before her.
Even if you still think Jessica Mendoza is a trash analyst regardless of my article, it doesn’t change the fact I still choose listening to her broadcast baseball than Brent Musburger’s biased, ignorant behind talk about football and basketball. Keep brushing off the haters, Jess! You go, girl!
P.S. To the insensitive radio host Mike Bell who tweeted (and I quote), “yes tell us Tits McGhee when you’re up there hitting the softball you see a lot of 95 mile an hour cutters?”, no. She didn’t see a lot of 95 mph cutters. You know what she did see though? 73+ mph fast balls and 68 mph rise balls from 43 feet away or closer. You know the conversion to baseball? 73 mph in softball equals 103 mph in baseball (reaction time and all that jazz). Still not impressed? A 68 mph rise ball equals 95-96 mph in baseball. PLUS, the rise ball has up spin non-existent in baseball. To learn more, please check out this video featuring former Olympic champion pitcher Jennie Finch (who played with and against Jessica Mendoza) striking out big hitting first baseman for the Los Angeles Angels Albert Pujols. Have a blessed day, and good game!
