_(cropped).jpg) Mendoza at the 2024MLB Little League Classic | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Jessica Ofelia Mendoza |
| Born | (1980-11-11)November 11, 1980 (age 44) Camarillo, California, U.S. |
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
| Spouse | |
| Sport | |
| Country | USA |
| Sport | Softball |
| Position | Outfielder |
| College team | Stanford University |
Jessica Ofelia Mendoza (born November 11, 1980) is an Americansportscaster and formersoftball player. Currently, she serves as an analyst forESPN's coverage ofMajor League Baseball andLos Angeles Dodgers coverage onSpectrum SportsNet LA.[1] As a softballoutfielder, Mendoza was a collegiate four-time First TeamAll-American and two-timeOlympic medalist. Mendoza played from 1999 to 2002 atStanford and was a member of theUnited States women's national softball team from 2004 to 2010. She won a gold medal at the2004 Olympics in Athens and a silver medal at the2008 Olympics in Beijing. She played professionally inNational Pro Fastpitch and was named 2011 Player of the Year and currently ranks in the top 10 for careerbatting average andslugging percentage.
Mendoza was a color commentator onESPN'sSunday 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]
Mendoza, a graduate ofAdolfo Camarillo High School, was named theLos 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 schoolbasketball team and was the team MVP in her junior and senior years.[4][5]
Mendoza attendedStanford University and playedcollege softball for theStanford Cardinal. She began her career as a 1999 First TeamAll-American and All-Pac-10 Conference honoree. Included with her recognition, she was namedPac-12 Newcomer of the Year. She broke the Cardinal records for seasonbatting average andruns batted in (RBIs) while ranking top-10 for her hits.[4]
On March 6, 1999, in defeatingIllinois 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, 4home runs, atriple and twodoubles for aslugging percentage of 1.473.[7]
As a sophomore, Mendoza again earn First Team citations for theNCAA Division I and thePac-10.[8] She added conferencePlayer 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 theNCAA.[9] She also claimed new records for hits, home runs, doubles, slugging, andstolen bases, which still rank top 10 for a season atStanford.[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 thirdAll-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-everWomen's College World Series appearance in 2001. The Cardinal were ousted on May 27 by theArizona Wildcats despite wins overCalifornia Golden Bears andLSU 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 theNCAA.[13] With her fourth straight honor from theNCAA, 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 theSan 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 theNCAA 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 forUSA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, and the Speedline Invitational Tournament MVP.[16][17] Mendoza graduated from Stanford with amaster's degree insocial sciences andeducation.[18]
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In 2004, Mendoza was a starting outfielder forTeam USA at the 2004Athens 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 forTeam 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 theBeijing 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 ofcollege. In 2003 and 2007, she was a gold medalist at thePan 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 theISF 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 onNational Pro Fastpitch.[26]
Mendoza joined theNational Pro Fastpitch in 2005 with theArizona Heat. She hit a league best (though in limited playing time) .491 her rookie year.[27] After returning from maternity leave and a role withTeam USA, Mendoza signed with theUSSSA 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 theChicago Bandits' trio of Kristina Thorson, Nikki Nemitz, and Jessica Sallinger.[29] In the other finale, Mendoza was 2/4 with a double offMonica 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 theChicago Bandits. Mendoza was shut out but walked twice.[32]
In June 2024,Athletes Unlimited announced that Mendoza will be advising them for the inaugural season of their Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), starting in 2025.[33]
Mendoza works forESPN and was acolor analyst onSunday Night Baseball telecasts.[2] She also is an analyst for theWomen's College World Series and has worked as asideline reporter forESPN College Football coverage.
On June 30, 2014, Mendoza began working on ESPN'sBaseball Tonight. She appeared on the Monday editions of the show.[34]
On June 16, 2015, Mendoza became the first female broadcaster in the booth forESPN'sCollege World Series coverage withKarl Ravech andKyle Peterson.[35] On August 24, Mendoza was the first female commentator for a Major League Baseball game in the history of ESPN, during a game between theSt. Louis Cardinals and theArizona Diamondbacks.[36] Six days later, Mendoza filled in for suspended color commentatorCurt Schilling for theCubs–Dodgers game onSunday Night Baseball. Cubs pitcherJake Arrieta pitched ano-hitter in the game.John Kruk,Dan Shulman and Mendoza called the2015 American League Wild Card Game on October 6, and Mendoza became the first female commentator in MLB postseason TV history.[37][38]
On January 13, 2016, ESPN announced that Mendoza would join theSunday Night Baseball broadcast team full-time, with Shulman andAaron Boone.[2] On October 6, 2017, Mendoza commentated for the2017 NLDS, her first MLB post-season series, onESPN Radio with broadcast partnerDave Flemming.[citation needed]
On March 5, 2019, theNew York Mets announced that Mendoza joined the club as a senior advisor togeneral managerBrodie Van Wagenen. This led to conflict of interest concerns, leading theLos Angeles Dodgers to block Mendoza from entering their clubhouse as a media member before Dodgers games broadcast by ESPN in the 2019 season.[39] The Dodgers had done the same withDavid Ross, who worked in theChicago Cubs organization while also commentating for ESPN.[40]
On January 16, 2020, she created controversy when she criticized formerHouston Astros pitcherMike Fiers for admitting tostealing 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.[41][42][43] Mendoza later backtracked and took to Twitter to clarify her comments.[44] 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 fromSunday Night Baseball, but signed a contract extension with ESPN on February 7, 2020, to remain a baseball analyst with the network.[45][46][47]
In October 2020, Mendoza became the first female World Series analyst on any national broadcast platform; she was on ESPN's radio platform.[48] In 2021, she was part of the broadcast team forNBC during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.[49]
In March 2022, it was announced that Mendoza would join theSpectrum SportsNet LA network to provide commentary for Los Angeles Dodgers games. She was a part of a group of network additions that includedEric Karros,Adrián González,José Mota, andDontrelle Willis.[1]
The daughter of Karen and Gil Mendoza, Mendoza has one brother and two sisters.[citation needed] Her father played football for four years forFresno 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 theWomen's Sports Foundation. She is an athleticambassador forTeam Darfur and board member of theNational Education Association.[50]
For their first match of March 2019, the women of theUnited 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.[51]
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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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
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