A call worthy of the game. Easily the best call of young Joe Davis’ career.
“Absolute madness.” pic.twitter.com/J2ybjUtpLw
— MLB (@MLB) April 30, 2017
Jessica Mendoza approaches broadcasting much like she did her storied softball career
From Excelle Sports
By Kayla Lombardo
Excelle Sports’ “Faces of the Game” series—in conjunction with Wilson Sporting Goods—gives an inside look into the stories of athletes beyond the field of play.
Jessica Mendoza looks into the lens of a camera comparably to how she used to look into the eyes of an opposing pitcher—with poise and confidence. Now, instead of her self-assured stare coming from the left-handed batter’s box on the softball diamond, it occurs from behind the microphone as a member of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast team.
For the two-time Olympic medalist—who last year became the first woman in the broadcast booth for a Major League Baseball game on ESPN—her approach to broadcasting isn’t so different from her former approach to playing softball. The 35-year-old still relies on her preparation and obsession with details in order to stand out.
“The ways I approach watching pitchers and studying batters now, it’s how I did when I was playing,” Mendoza told Excelle Sports in a phone interview just ahead of her SportsCenter assignment for Game 1 of the World Series in Cleveland. “I would watch opposing pitchers and look for their weaknesses, strengths, what they liked to go to. I now find myself obsessed with video footage and wanting to watch it, and a lot of that has to do with how I played and how I was trained.”
Vin Scully’s Last Regular-Season Games To Be Broadcast On KTLA
Vin Scully’s leaving the announcer’s booth after 67 (!) years. To give you some context, when Scully first started, Harry Truman was president, Peanuts was in its first year of circulation, and the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn.
Of course, one thing fans have been grumbling about in recent years is the fact that you can’t even watch the Dodgers telecasts (unless you have SportsNet LA, or if the game is televised nationally). But it looks like the baseball gods have rectified things just in time. That’s right: Vin Scully’s last six regular-season games will be shown on KTLA, reports the L.A. Times. What’s also notable is that Scully, who had mostly retired from doing road games, will be at AT&T Park as the Dodgers take on the Giants.
The six games that will be televised on KTLA are: September 23-25 against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium, and September 30-October 2 against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.
Editor’s note: While Vin’s broadcasts are carried across the country and in Canada, locally, many L.A. fans (those without Time Warner/Charter cable) have been shutout for the past two seasons, after being able to watch nearly every Dodger game with Vin for decades. Small consolation after missing most of his last two seasons, but we’ll take it. 67 years ! Stop and think. Where were you 67 years ago. Right. Be sure to tune in for these last 6 broadcasts. So you can tell people where you were for Vin Scully’s final games. Cue the video recorder. And remember. There is no crying in baseball.
Longtime ESPN host John Saunders dead at age 61
“John Saunders, one of the familiar on-air faces of ESPN for nearly 30 years, has died. He was 61.
Saunders hosted studio and play-by-play programming. He covered college football, basketball and the NHL for the network, in addition to anchoring SportsCenter. He was also host of The Sports Reporters.
Born in Canada, Saunders was an all-star defenseman in the junior hockey leagues of Montreal. He played at Western Michigan and Ryerson Polytechnical in Toronto before becoming one of the most prominent broadcasters of his time.
Saunders was a founding member of The V Foundation for Cancer Research and served on its board of directors.
“John was an extraordinary talent and his friendly, informative style has been a warm welcome to sports fans for decades,” said John Skipper, president of ESPN and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks, in a statement. “His wide range of accomplishments across numerous sports and championship events is among the most impressive this industry has ever seen. More importantly, John was a beloved and devoted family man who cared deeply about people and causes, as evidenced by his long-standing efforts as a passionate board member for The V Foundation for Cancer Research.”
Click here to continue reading the full article at ESPN.
Editor’s note: The voice. That’s the first thing I think of when I hear his name. His distinctive voice and smooth, professional delivery. A consummate professional. The short video roundtable from ESPN talking about John is worthy of a look, if have a few minutes. Jason Sehorn echoed my thoughts, calling John’s voice “soothing”. The personal notes from his colleagues tell you the kind of man he was, whether on, or off camera.
“At age 61” jumped off the page for me. Too young.
Softball’s Jessica Mendoza to work Dodgers-Cubs game Sunday night on ESPN
From the NYT
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
Jessica Mendoza, a gold-medal-winning Olympic softball player, will work on ESPN’s broadcast Sunday night of the Chicago Cubs-Los Angeles Dodgers game.
Mendoza, primarily an analyst for women’s college softball at ESPN, became the first woman to call a Major League Baseball game for ESPN on Monday when she joined Dave O’Brien and Dallas Braden for the network’s St. Louis Cardinals-Arizona Diamondbacks game.
“I was nervous,” she said. “I definitely tried to prepare as if I’d done it a million times so it wouldn’t seem like anything unique. My heart was pumping in the first inning like it was in the first inning of an Olympic game. But after that first at-bat — boom! — it felt comfortable.”
Mendoza has worked for ESPN since 2007, has appeared on “Baseball Tonight” since last year and was a field analyst for this year’s College World Series.
A woman calling M.L.B. games is a rarity. Click here to continue reading at the New York Times.
Ballpark Broadcasting and ISC Network crew, are you ready?