Bob Klein of JP Morgan on Jessica Mendoza

Jessica Mendoza has served as a major role model for women in sports throughout her career. This former softball player recently became the first female analyst for a nationally televised postseason game in 2015. Prior to that, she was the first female Major League Baseball game analyst for Sunday Night Baseball and is currently in her third season.

Before Mendoza’s career as a sports broadcaster, she attended Stanford University where she was a four-time First Team All-American outfielder for the Stanford Cardinals. She later became a member of the United States women’s national softball team. Mendoza has received several Olympic medals, a gold in the 2004 Olympics and a silver in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Focusing on her most current achievement, Jessica Mendoza is only one of two women who make a regular appearance in a broadcast booth. Suzyn Waldman is another prominent female sports newscaster for the New York Yankees but is primarily heard on the radio.

Mendoza shares how big of an impact Waldman has had on her career. She explains that hearing another woman's voice from a broadcast booth is comforting and helps with an easier assimilation of women into men’s sports.

Mendoza believes that if more women became more involved in baseball broadcasting, it would help appeal to a wider audience. Mendoza explains that she thinks women would be more willing to watch sports if they were being spoken to more.

In a recent poll, it was revealed that about 30% of Major League Baseball fans are women. Expanding the pool of baseball analysts to include more women like Jessica Mendoza would not only allow women to connect more with the game but for men to become more accepting the presence of women within Major League Baseball.

This blog was originally posted by Bob Klein on BobKleinNewportBeach.wordpress.com.