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?

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