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Jessica Mendoza

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Jessica Mendoza
Mendoza at the 2024 MLB Little League Classic
Personal information
Full nameJessica Ofelia Mendoza
Born (1980-11-11) November 11, 1980 (age 44)
Camarillo, California, U.S.
Height5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Spouse
Adam Burks
​
(m. 2006)​
Sport
CountryUSA
SportSoftball
PositionOutfielder
College teamStanford University
Medal record
Women's softball
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2004 Athens Team competition
Silver medal – second place 2008 Beijing Team competition
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place 2003 Santo Domingo Team competition
Gold medal – first place 2007 Rio de Janeiro Team competition

Jessica Ofelia Mendoza (born November 11, 1980) is an American sportscaster and former softball player. Currently, she serves as an analyst for ESPN's coverage of Major League Baseball and Los Angeles Dodgers coverage on Spectrum SportsNet LA.[1] As a softball outfielder, Mendoza was a collegiate four-time First Team All-American and two-time Olympic medalist. Mendoza played from 1999 to 2002 at Stanford and was a member of the United States women's national softball team from 2004 to 2010. She won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She played professionally in National Pro Fastpitch and was named 2011 Player of the Year and currently ranks in the top 10 for career batting average and slugging percentage.

Mendoza was a color commentator on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball from 2016 to 2019.[2] She remains an ESPN baseball analyst. Mendoza was named by fans and experts to the Greatest College Softball Team as an outfielder, one of only three to achieve the honor.[3]

Early life

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Mendoza, a graduate of Adolfo Camarillo High School, was named the Los Angeles Times Player of the Year in 1998. During her junior and senior years, she was named Camarillo High School's Female Athlete of the Year. Mendoza was also a member of the high school basketball team and was the team MVP in her junior and senior years.[4][5]

Playing career

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Stanford Cardinal

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Mendoza attended Stanford University and played college softball for the Stanford Cardinal. She began her career as a 1999 First Team All-American and All-Pac-10 Conference honoree. Included with her recognition, she was named Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year. She broke the Cardinal records for season batting average and runs batted in (RBIs) while ranking top-10 for her hits.[4]

On March 6, 1999, in defeating Illinois State, Mendoza had a single-game career high four hits off pitchers Corey Harris, Tammy Millian and Jamie Bagnall.[6] Later that month, for the week of March 8, she was named National Fastpitch Coaches Association Player of the Week after hitting .631 (12/19) with 11 RBIs, 4 home runs, a triple and two doubles for a slugging percentage of 1.473.[7]

As a sophomore, Mendoza again earn First Team citations for the NCAA Division I and the Pac-10.[8] She added conference Player of the Year to her collection and broke her own record for batting average with a then-school and career-best .474, which also led the NCAA.[9] She also claimed new records for hits, home runs, doubles, slugging, and stolen bases, which still rank top 10 for a season at Stanford.[10]

From February 29 through March 22, 2000, Mendoza went on a school-record 19-consecutive-game hit streak. She batted .561 (32/57) to accompany four home runs and 15 RBIs, striking out just once with a slugging of .842.

Mendoza continued her success for the Cardinal with her third All-American and All-Pac-10 citations.[11] She posted top-10 season records in virtually every category, still currently ranking second in single-season home runs and stolen bases.[10]

Mendoza helped lead Stanford to their first-ever Women's College World Series appearance in 2001. The Cardinal were ousted on May 27 by the Arizona Wildcats despite wins over California Golden Bears and LSU Tigers.[12] Mendoza was named to the All-Tournament Team for hitting .250 with an RBI and a double.

For her final season, Mendoza earned First Team citations for both conference and the NCAA.[13] With her fourth straight honor from the NCAA, Mendoza joined elite company as only the fifth player to accomplish the feat then. That year she also tied her home run record and ranked top-10 in almost every other category.[10]

The week of March 4, she was named NFCA's Player of the Week for a third time. She had hit .647 (11/17) with a home run, five doubles, and 1.117 slugging. Later that season, on May 8 with a 10–2 victory over the San Jose State Spartans, Mendoza drove in a career best six RBIs, four coming off her 50th career home-run swing with Carol Forbes pitching.[14]

Mendoza currently holds career records in average, hits, home runs, slugging, and runs. Her career doubles (ranked 7th in the NCAA all-time), triples, RBIs and walks are still top-10 records.[15] She was also named Pac-10 Player of the Week three times, a top 25 finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, and the Speedline Invitational Tournament MVP.[16][17] Mendoza graduated from Stanford with a master's degree in social sciences and education.[18]

Team USA

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Mendoza in 2008

In 2004, Mendoza was a starting outfielder for Team USA at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Prior to the tournament, Mendoza hit .380 on the "Aiming For Athens" tour with 42 RBIs and 10 home runs.[19] On August 14, Mendoza had two hits and two RBIs with a triple vs. Italy.[20] She repeated her performance on August 19 against host Greece, with a double in that game.[21] Team USA won the gold medal on August 23, though Mendoza was shut out by Australia.[22] Overall, she went 5/20 (.250) scoring five times herself and hitting in 5 RBIs with a .400 slugging.

In 2008, Mendoza was again an outfielder for Team USA and led in almost every category on the "Bound 4 Beijing" Tour. She hit .495 with 107 RBIs and a .971 slugging.[23] At the Beijing Olympic Games, she drove in 4 RBIs vs. Chinese Taipei on August 14.[24] In the finale, Mendoza was again shut out and her team won the silver medal, losing to Japan on August 21.[25]

In addition, Mendoza went directly onto the US team straight out of college. In 2003 and 2007, she was a gold medalist at the Pan American Games. She also won the silver medal at both the World Cup and Japan Cup. In 2006, Jessica was named the USA Softball "Female Athlete of the Year." She played for Team USA in the World Cup again in 2007, this time bringing home that gold medal. She went 11/18 with a double, three home runs, and 16 RBIs. Mendoza won the ISF Women's World Championship, hitting .500 with 5 home runs and 16 RBIs. In 2008, she was named to the Canada Cup All-Star Team. Mendoza declined an invitation to play for the US in 2011 to focus on National Pro Fastpitch.[26]

National Pro Fastpitch

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Mendoza joined the National Pro Fastpitch in 2005 with the Arizona Heat. She hit a league best (though in limited playing time) .491 her rookie year.[27] After returning from maternity leave and a role with Team USA, Mendoza signed with the USSSA Pride.[28] In her two seasons with the Pride, Mendoza hit .284 and .377, respectively. The same two years, her teams made the Cowles Cup championship, winning the title in 2010. Mendoza was shut out against the Chicago Bandits' trio of Kristina Thorson, Nikki Nemitz, and Jessica Sallinger.[29] In the other finale, Mendoza was 2/4 with a double off Monica Abbott in a rematch with the Bandits, who ultimately won 10–3 on August 21.[30][31] Once again, Mendoza and the Pride made the Cowles Cup Championship but lost to the Chicago Bandits. Mendoza was shut out but walked twice.[32]

Broadcasting career

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ESPN

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Mendoza works for ESPN and was a color analyst on Sunday Night Baseball telecasts.[2] She also is an analyst for the Women's College World Series and has worked as a sideline reporter for ESPN College Football coverage.

On June 30, 2014, Mendoza began working on ESPN's Baseball Tonight. She appeared on the Monday editions of the show.[33]

On June 16, 2015, Mendoza became the first female broadcaster in the booth for ESPN's College World Series coverage with Karl Ravech and Kyle Peterson.[34] On August 24, Mendoza was the first female commentator for a Major League Baseball game in the history of ESPN, during a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Arizona Diamondbacks.[35] Six days later, Mendoza filled in for suspended color commentator Curt Schilling for the Cubs–Dodgers game on Sunday Night Baseball. Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta pitched a no-hitter in the game. John Kruk, Dan Shulman and Mendoza called the 2015 American League Wild Card Game on October 6, and Mendoza became the first female commentator in MLB postseason TV history.[36][37]

On January 13, 2016, ESPN announced that Mendoza would join the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast team full-time, with Shulman and Aaron Boone.[2] On October 6, 2017, Mendoza commentated for the 2017 NLDS, her first MLB post-season series, on ESPN Radio with broadcast partner Dave Flemming.[citation needed]

On March 5, 2019, the New York Mets announced that Mendoza joined the club as a senior advisor to general manager Brodie Van Wagenen. This led to conflict of interest concerns, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to block Mendoza from entering their clubhouse as a media member before Dodgers games broadcast by ESPN in the 2019 season.[38] The Dodgers had done the same with David Ross, who worked in the Chicago Cubs organization while also commentating for ESPN.[39]

On January 16, 2020, she created controversy when she criticized former Houston Astros pitcher Mike Fiers for admitting to stealing signs during the team's World Series title run in 2017. The controversy surrounded the fact that she felt that Fiers should have reported his concerns to MLB authorities rather than simply share them with a reporter.[40][41][42] Mendoza later backtracked and took to Twitter to clarify her comments.[43] Amid concerns about a potential conflict of interest over her Mets role and the controversy of the Fiers comments, she later resigned from her role as Mets advisor and was dropped from Sunday Night Baseball, but signed a contract extension with ESPN on February 7, 2020, to remain a baseball analyst with the network.[44][45][46]

In October 2020, Mendoza became the first female World Series analyst on any national broadcast platform; she was on ESPN's radio platform.[47] In 2021, she was part of the broadcast team for NBC during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.[48]

Los Angeles Dodgers

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In March 2022, it was announced that Mendoza would join the Spectrum SportsNet LA network to provide commentary for Los Angeles Dodgers games. She was a part of a group of network additions that included Eric Karros, Adrián González, José Mota, and Dontrelle Willis.[1]

Personal life

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The daughter of Karen and Gil Mendoza, Mendoza has one brother and two sisters.[citation needed] Her father played football for four years for Fresno State University. Mendoza is married to Adam Burks, with whom she has two sons.[citation needed] She is a second-generation Mexican-American, as stated in an ESPN article by Aimee Crawford published on October 11, 2011.[citation needed]

Mendoza is a trustee and past president of the Women's Sports Foundation. She is an athletic ambassador for Team Darfur and board member of the National Education Association.[49]

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For their first match of March 2019, the women of the United States women's national soccer team each wore a jersey with the name of a woman they were honoring on the back; Andi Sullivan chose the name of Mendoza.[50]

Statistics

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Stanford Cardinal

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YEAR G AB R H BA RBI HR 3B 2B TB SLG BB SO SB SBA
1999 62 195 38 81 .415 57 9 2 13 125 .641 12 22 6 8
2000 63 198 57 94 .474 41 13 1 20 155 .783 15 13 20 25
2001 71 205 70 83 .405 46 14 3 20 151 .736 32 23 31 35
2002 63 188 65 69 .367 44 14 3 17 134 .713 31 22 29 31
TOTALS 259 786 230 327 .416 188 50 9 70 565 .719 90 80 86 99

Team USA

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YEAR AB R H BA RBI HR 3B 2B TB SLG BB SO SB SBA
2004 149 49 54 .362 47 10 7 8 106 .711 11 25 5 6
2008 230 99 110 .478 116 25 5 27 222 .965 26 26 8 10
TOTALS 379 148 164 .432 163 35 12 35 328 .865 37 51 13 16

NPF Arizona Heat & USSSA Pride

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YEAR AB R H BA RBI HR 3B 2B TB SLG BB SO SB
2005 59 23 29 .491 28 8 0 5 0 .983 11 4 10
2010 130 22 37 .284 28 7 1 8 68 .523 14 38 4
2011 130 39 49 .377 35 10 1 5 86 .661 17 26 11
2012 95 30 32 .337 39 9 2 2 65 .684 15 27 9
TOTALS 414 114 147 .355 130 34 4 20 277 .669 57 95 34

References

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  1. ^ a b Harris, Jack (March 14, 2022). "Jessica Mendoza, Adrián González, José Mota join Dodgers' TV, radio coverage teams". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c "Jessica Mendoza, Aaron Boone join 'Sunday Night Baseball' broadcast". ESPN.com news services. January 13, 2016. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  3. ^ "Lauren Chamberlain, Jessica Mendoza Voted to ESPN's Greatest All-Time College Softball Team". Espn.com. Espn.com. June 10, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Jessica Mendoza". Stanford Athletics. Archived from the original on June 9, 2003. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  5. ^ Reedy, Joey (December 12, 2018). "ESPN signs Camarillo High graduate Jessica Mendoza to multiyear extension". Ventura County Star. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
  6. ^ "Stanford vs Illinois State: March 6, 1999 Box Score". Stanford University. Archived from the original on March 6, 2001. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  7. ^ "Jessica Mendoza Named National Player of the Week". Stanford University. Archived from the original on February 26, 2000. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  8. ^ "News – National Fastpitch Coaches Association". nfca.org. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  9. ^ http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/Softball%20Archived%20Stats/2000/D1.txt [bare URL plain text file]
  10. ^ a b c "Stanford Softball Player Career Records". Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  11. ^ "News – National Fastpitch Coaches Association". nfca.org. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  12. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved February 16, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ^ "News – National Fastpitch Coaches Association". nfca.org. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  14. ^ "No. 8 Softball Earns Doubleheader Split Against San Jose State". Stanford Athletics. May 8, 2002. Archived from the original on September 7, 2004. Retrieved August 21, 2016.
  15. ^ "Career Records". Gostanford.com. Retrieved July 9, 2020.[permanent dead link‍]
  16. ^ "Pac-12 Conference 2020 Softball Media Guide". E-digitaleditions.com. Retrieved July 7, 2010.
  17. ^ "Division I Records" (PDF). Ncaa.org. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  18. ^ "USA Softball – Features, Events, Results – Team USA". Team USA. Archived from the original on December 15, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  19. ^ "USA Softball – Features, Events, Results – Team USA". Team USA. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  20. ^ "USA Softball – Features, Events, Results – Team USA". Team USA. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  21. ^ "USA Softball – Features, Events, Results – Team USA". Team USA. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  22. ^ "USA Softball – Features, Events, Results – Team USA". Team USA. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  23. ^ "USA Softball – Features, Events, Results – Team USA" (PDF). Team USA. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  24. ^ "USA Softball – Features, Events, Results – Team USA". Team USA. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  25. ^ "USA Softball – Features, Events, Results – Team USA". Team USA. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  26. ^ "Softball stars not playing for US team". Archived from the original on January 17, 2011. Retrieved January 18, 2011.
  27. ^ "National Pro Fastpitch: Season Archives". profastpitch.com. Archived from the original on March 18, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  28. ^ "National Pro Fastpitch: NPF News". profastpitch.com. Archived from the original on March 25, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  29. ^ "profastpitch.com: Statistics". pointstreak.com. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  30. ^ "profastpitch.com: Statistics". pointstreak.com. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  31. ^ "championship.profastpitch.com: News". profastpitch.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  32. ^ "profastpitch.com: Statistics". pointstreak.com. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  33. ^ "MLB Media Notes: ESPN's Jessica Mendoza Expanding Role To "Baseball Tonight"". Sports Business Daily. April 1, 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  34. ^ @sluggernation (June 16, 2015). "Shout out to our girl @jessmendoza as she makes history tonight as the 1st female in the booth at the men's CWS! #beautifullypowerful" (Tweet). Retrieved August 29, 2015 – via Twitter.
  35. ^ "Jessica Mendoza becomes first woman to fill analyst role for MLB game on ESPN". Yahoo Sports. August 25, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  36. ^ Miller, Doug (October 6, 2015). "Mendoza makes TV history in AL Wild Card". MLB.com. Archived from the original on October 8, 2015. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  37. ^ "ESPN's Jessica Mendoza On Being The First Woman To Call A MLB Playoff Game". NPR. October 15, 2015. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
  38. ^ Marchand, Andrew (October 15, 2019). "ESPN considers blowing up Sunday night booth around Alex Rodriguez".
  39. ^ "Dodgers block ESPN's Jessica Mendoza from clubhouse interviews over role with Mets - Sports Illustrated". www.si.com. October 15, 2019.
  40. ^ "Mendoza: Fiers should have informed MLB first". ESPN.com. January 17, 2020. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  41. ^ "Mets adviser Jessica Mendoza calls out Mike Fiers for exposing Astros cheating scandal". sports.yahoo.com. January 16, 2020. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  42. ^ "Mendoza cowardly blames A's Fiers for the Astros scandal". NBCS Bay Area. January 16, 2020. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  43. ^ Wells, Adam. "Mets' Jessica Mendoza Clarifies Criticism of Mike Fiers over Sign-Stealing". Bleacher Report. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  44. ^ Orozco, Lance (February 7, 2020). "Olympic Medalist, Sports Announcer From Ventura County Signs New Deal With ESPN". KCLU. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  45. ^ "Mendoza signs ESPN extension, leaves Mets job". ESPN. February 7, 2020. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  46. ^ "Jessica Mendoza resigns as Mets adviser after calling out whistleblower Mike Fiers". CBSSports.com. February 8, 2020.
  47. ^ Das, Ria (October 22, 2020). "Jessica Mendoza Becomes First Woman Analyst In World Series History".
  48. ^ Mendoza, Jessica [@jessmendoza] (July 20, 2021). "It's here!!! Walking into the stadium where the first pitch will be thrown for softball in the Olympic Games in less than 24 hours..." (Tweet). Retrieved March 17, 2022 – via Twitter.
  49. ^ "Mendoza Jessica". Women's Sports Foundation. Archived from the original on December 23, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
  50. ^ Ennis, Dawn (March 4, 2019). "Lesbian icons honored with jerseys worn by USWNT". Outsports. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
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