Criticized for Being a ‘Woman Announcer,’ Jessica Mendoza Shines Anyway
*The first woman to call a nationally televised Major League Baseball playoff game is a Latina! VL
By Katie Rogers, The New York Times
Jessica Mendoza is a former All-American softball star and an ascendant voice among ESPN’s stable of major-league baseball announcers. On Tuesday night, she earned another distinction when she became the first woman to call a nationally televised playoff game. But as much as the history-making moment excited many fans, it also revealed how stubbornly sexism persists in male-dominated sports.
Colleagues who have watched Mendoza’s rise commended her debut. Before the Houston Astros bested the Yankees, 3-0, in the American League wild-card playoffs Mendoza called, several female ESPN journalists voiced their support, emphasizing that people should focus on her knowledge of the sport and her qualifications, not her gender.
“It wasn’t a question of her being capable, but she was entering a space where there just haven’t been a lot of opportunities for women,” said Jemele Hill of “His & Hers” an ESPN radio show. “I couldn’t be prouder of her.”
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[Photo courtesy of ESPN]