A fixture of ESPN’s baseball coverage will stick around for a few more years. Jessica Mendoza, who covers both baseball and softball for the network, is back with ESPN. The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed but the company posted a video of Mendoza announcing the move via its @ESPNPR X account:
Mendoza joined ESPN in 2007 and in 2015, became the first woman to serve as an analyst for nationally-televised MLB games. She has since become one of the leading voices in ESPN’s baseball coverage, broadcasting Major League Baseball and Little League World Series games. Unsurprisingly, she also calls softball games at every level for ESPN.
For the uninitiated, Mendoza had an illustrious softball career that resulted in a ton of hardware. She is a two-time Olympian and was a member of the U.S. Women’s National team from 2001-10. Her team won the Gold Medal during the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece, and the Silver Medal during the 2008 Games in Beijing, China.
She is both a three-time World Champion (2002, 2006, 2010) and World Cup Champion (2006, 2007, 2010), in addition to being a two-time Pan American Gold Medalist (2003, 2007). In 2006, she was named the USA Softball Athlete of the Year and was also recognized in 2008 as the Women’s Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year. In 2019, Mendoza was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame.
