ESPN’s Jessica Mendoza has probably forgotten more about baseball than I’ll ever learn in my lifetime. We had an exclusive conversation with Mendoza, this past weekend, as the 2015 World Series shifted from Kansas City to New York. The first female panelist on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight, Mendoza also famously became the first female to ever call a nationally televised MLB postseason game.
“I felt a responsibility, definitely, in being the first, but a lot of it was really just wanting to do a good job,” Mendoza said.
“I’d love for it to be a time when we’re not doing so many firsts; we’re just like great, good, let’s move on,” the former Women’s Sports Foundation President (2009-2010) continued.
Angela Hucles is the current WSF leader.
Most social milestones usually encounter some degree of backlash, and this was no different. The most vocal resistance that emerged, however, was so ludicrous that it’s not worth citing or linking. The most notorious Jessica Mendoza denouncer came off as nothing more than a misogynistic troglodyte seeing publicity by any means necessary.
“The resistance I did get was so much more sexist that, if anything, I actually expected it to be a little bit more intelligent, finding something I specifically said, and disagreeing,” Mendoza said.
“But a lot of it, from what I heard, was just I thought we were kind of passed that as a society.”
Her achievement says a lot about where we are as a society, but also how far we still have to go. It’s true, there has been a very large increase in the number of women in sports media this decade, and in the decade that proceeded it. However, if you go to most press boxes, the male to female ratio is still often 25:1 or even 30:1.
As you might expect, there’s often more misogyny and sexism than you will find in other work places.
It also doesn’t help that many of the women entering the world of sports media today aren’t journalists, and unfortunately, these flaws are often quite apparent in their work. Too many television networks are hiring former cheerleaders, bikini models and beauty pageant contestants, instead of hiring women with journalism degrees and/or experience playing the games that they cover.
A lot of TV networks are setting women back in this field, not advancing them further. Ideally, someday we can reach a point where we’re only talking about the medium and the message, not the messenger or the demographics of the messenger.
“I understand that not everyone is going to agree with everything I say, just like anything we do, but as long as they can get just over the fact that I’m a woman, I’m, good,” said Mendoza.
A very accomplished former softball player on the collegiate, professional and international level, Mendoza won Olympic gold with the United States Women’s National Team in Athens, as well as a silver in Beijing. She was also a four time All-American during her collegiate career at Stanford.
Overall, Jessica Mendoza believes that her making baseball history was very well received, and that she received praise from the hearts and minds that are truly relevant.
“I feel like the reaction was even better than I thought, As for change, and something different, you get that resistance; so I kind of went in, helmet on, thinking I’m going to get attacked here, and it wasn’t like that at all.”
“Being here at the World Series and talking to people that listen- that’s really what matters, as long as my colleagues and the people I work for, that’s all I want is to be more respected.”
Be sure to catch Jessica Mendoza’s post World Series analysis on ESPN Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter. Part one of this exclusive, focusing on the World Series, was published Friday, and is linked here.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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