Sports TV News

Mendoza Shines During ESPN Game

Published

8 years ago

August 31, 2015

Sunday night’s game between the Cubs and Dodgers would have been historic even had Jake Arrieta not thrown a no-hitter and regardless of the circumstances that resulted in Jessica Mendoza being on the air for ESPN alongside Dan Shulman and John Kruk on the network’s signature baseball broadcast.

Simply being in that position, making history as the first woman on that high profile of a production, Mendoza encapsulated the American dream, at a time when the leading candidate for a major political party’s presidential nomination is parading around in a silly hat that says “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” and proposing the erection of a wall to keep out foreigners.

America already is great, which is the reason that people want to come here in the first place. People come to America to find a better life for themselves and better opportunities for future generations of their families.

Mendoza is a second-generation Mexican-American. She has a master’s degree from Stanford, has been president of the Women’s Sports Foundation and wound up making history in a male-dominated profession. No matter what you think of the chain of events that resulted in her being in that booth at Dodger Stadium on Sunday night, the fact she was there should be an inspiration to anyone who loves this country and what it represents.

And for those who say “stick to sports,” well, sports often turns out to be a forum for American culture, going from Jackie Robinson to the Women’s World Cup this summer. So, there absolutely is room in sports to talk both about Schilling’s social media presence and Mendoza popping through a glass ceiling.

As it turned out, Mendoza wasn’t just there. She was excellent. For that matter, so were Shulman and Kruk in calling the no-hitter. It was a broadcast for ESPN to be proud of, all around. If the best advice you can get is “be yourself,” everyone lived up to it. Shulman showed off his play-by-play chops, Kruk thrived making points about the ins and outs of the game without fear of mockery for his sometimes clumsy way of getting to those points and Mendoza expertly broke down inside-the-game elements like pitch sequencing and the science of hitting.

Here she is talking about Dexter Fowler’s single up the middle in the eighth inning: “Fowler just has a good approach. That’s three different pitchers that he’s faced, and all he’s doing is trying to simplify and let this ball get to his back leg. This is something so hard to do as a hitter, because your impatience wants you to get it out in front, but you watch how he lets this ball get back and because of that he’s able to hit it right up the middle. All of his hits tonight coming middle to opposite field.”

Kruk follows up with this: “I think that’s where Dexter Fowler gets in trouble. He gets home run happy, and he tries to pull balls, get out in front of balls and he doesn’t stay back like that. His game to me, even though he has 14 home runs, is get on, create havoc with your legs, hit the ball to all fields.”

This is how a two-analyst setup should work, with the voices complementing each other. In this case, Mendoza has the more cerebral part of the breakdown, while Kruk talks about the mindset required to properly execute those elements of the game. Simply putting a hitter and a pitcher together to “capture both sides of the game” does not get the job done. The voices need to build off of each other, and that is what happened here.

To read the rest of the story visit the Sporting News where it was originally published

Jason Barrett

Jason Barrett is the owner and operator of Barrett Sports Media. Prior to launching BSM he served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He has also produced national shows for ESPN Radio including GameNight and the Dan Patrick Show. You can find him on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or reach him by email at [email protected].

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Sports TV News

John Dickinson Exits 95.7 The Game

“The longtime Bay Area sports radio reporter and host announced his departure on social media.”

Published

11 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Jordan Bondurant

23538F4F-2BF5-40B4-9FA4-07801B5214EE | Barrett Media

A voice familiar to Bay Area sports fans will no longer be heard on 95.7 The Game. Reporter John Dickinson announced on Monday that it was his last day at the station.

Dickinson posted a note on X on Monday expressing his gratitude for getting to be at 95.7 The Game for well over a decade covering sports.

“Who would have thought I’d have been fortunate enough to cover two World Series or three Super Bowls or SIX NBA Finals?” Dickinson wrote. “They even let me pretend to be a hockey reporter during the 2016 Stanley Cup Final. Through the countless hours of radio shows and update shifts, and the long days and nights of traveling to cover Warriors and 49ers games all across the country, it’s been a pleasure to interact with some of the most passionate and knowledgeable (and sometime neurotic) fans in sports.”

Today was my last day at 95.7 The Game after 12 years 7 months & 7 days. (But who's counting) pic.twitter.com/VIDLRLkACI
— John Dickinson (@JDJohnDickinson) November 28, 2023

He continued that he’s thankful for the chance to develop such great relationships with other reporters on the various Bay Area pro sports beats. Dickinson announced that he’s excited for what’s next.

According to sources, that next opportunity will be with KNBR.

“Grateful for the friendships that have blossomed with co-workers and other reporters along all the great beats in the Bay Area,” he wrote. “From my early days almost exclusively on the Raiders/Warriors/Giants to now primarily the 49ers/Warriors. Beyond excited for what’s next, but that’s tomorrow’s news.”

Jordan Bondurant

Jordan Bondurant is a features reporter for Barrett Sports Media. He’s a multimedia journalist and communicator who works at the Virginia State Corporation Commission in Richmond. Jordan also contributes occasional coverage of the Washington Capitals for the blog NoVa Caps. His prior media experiences include working for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Danville Register & Bee, Virginia Lawyers Weekly, WRIC-TV 8News and Audacy Richmond. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @J__Bondurant.

Sports TV News

Rob Stone: Big Noon Kickoff ‘A Toddler But Not in Our Crib Anymore’

The college football pregame show is about to finish its 5th season competing with ESPN’s College GameDay.

Published

11 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Jordan Bondurant

(Photo: FOX Sports)

FOX is about to put a bow on its fifth season of Big Noon Kickoff, and even though ESPN’s College GameDay continues to lead in viewership, FOX isn’t taking its foot off the pedal.

Big Noon Kickoff averaged 1.02 million viewers through the first 10 weeks of the 2023 season according to reporting from Sports Business Journal. That figure was up from the 997,000 viewer average last year, the first year FOX sent its college football pregame show on the road for the entire regular season.

The show has seen its biggest growth in the final hour leading into FOX’s Big Noon Saturday game of the week broadcast. The 11 a.m. hour is averaging over 1.4 million viewers during that window through nine weeks.

FOX has seemed to master creating its own party atmosphere for the on-campus, on-location live show hosted by Rob Stone. Brady Quinn, Matt Leinart, Mark Ingram, and Urban Meyer fill out the desk, with Bruce Feldman and Chris “The Bear” Fallica contributing throughout the course of the morning.

Stone said the show continues to improve and gain momentum. It’s clear the program is on an upward trajectory.

“We’re a toddler, but we’re not in our crib anymore,” Stone said. “We’re demanding a king-sized bed.”

“It’s just a testament to everyone at Fox believing in what we can make this,” Leinart added. “And then also the guys up here and everybody part of this crew — in front of the camera and behind the camera — everybody makes the show go.”

The show obviously wants to eventually overtake GameDay as the most popular college football pregame show in the country, but many elements pull from the formula ESPN has used to make GameDay what it is. Imitation is the most honest form of flattery in Quinn’s eyes, who said that the big difference between what viewers get on FOX is the focus funneling into the noon game of the week.

“Obviously, if you’re gonna start out with the idea to do a college football pregame show, you take a lot of things [GameDay has] done because they’ve been successful,” Quinn said. “What we’re trying to do is taking the tailgate — that party and that atmosphere inside the stadium right before the game — right to kick.”

“The vast majority of our games are that,” the Big Noon Kickoff host added. “So hopefully when you’re watching you get more of the intensity wrapping up to like, here it is, here are the two teams. Boom. Gus and Joel, take it away.”

Jordan Bondurant

Sports TV News

NBC Sports Trialing Paul McGinley as Lead Golf Analyst This Weekend

McGinley will get the opportunity to helm the role held by Paul Azinger before his exit earlier this month.

Published

11 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Jordan Bondurant

When the Hero World Challenge tees off later this week in The Bahamas, NBC Sports will reportedly be auditioning its next PGA Tour lead analyst in Paul McGinley.

The Irish Independent on Monday reported that McGinley, a Ryder Cup champion for Europe who contributes analysis to both Sky Sports and Golf Channel, will get to test out doing play-by-play analysis alongside Dan Hicks.

NBC is going to be hiring a new lead analyst after the departure of Paul Azinger following October’s Ryder Cup. The network’s PGA Tour broadcast schedule for 2024 doesn’t begin in earnest until February.

It’s believed that if McGinley gets the lead analyst nod, he will continue to honor his obligations to Sky and Golf Channel under the Comcast banner.

Jordan Bondurant