Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports media:
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times gave high marks to Jessica Mendoza for her work in ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball booth. She was terrific. You definitely will see her on more MLB games.
Jessica Mendoza showed Sunday night that she belongs in ESPN’s regular rotation of baseball game analysts, with a smart, understated stint in place of Curt Schilling.
She did not sound nervous. She did not push herself into conversations whenever a thought occurred to her. She had an easy camaraderie with the play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman and the analyst John Kruk, with whom she worked at the women’s College World Series in 2008. Sometimes she offered the first analysis of a play, sometimes Kruk did, alternating easily as veteran partners might.
More important, she spoke knowledgeably about batting mechanics, pitch sequences and the way Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta manipulated the speed of his slider en route to a no-hitter.
“Male, female, it doesn’t matter,” Kruk said Monday in a telephone interview. “She’s as knowledgeable as anyone I’ve ever talked to about baseball. That’s why she was arguably the best hitter in the world when she was in her prime.”
More details on why David Feherty parted ways with CBS from Ron Sirak of Golf Digest.
Multiple sources say the CBS situation was soured by the two factors: Feherty wanted a booth job rather than roaming the fairways, but Nick Faldo already shares that duty with Jim Nantz; and CAA was demanding a salary figure CBS was unwilling to meet.
Feherty would be a huge boost for Fox, whose debut at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay was roundly panned. It would also appear to be a good fit since Fox has an appetite for the kind of outspoken comments to which Feherty is prone.
Here we go: Top college football analysts weigh in on what expect in 2015. Richard Deitsch, SI.com
Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing sets the broadcast teams for the new college football season.
Why Donald Trump is not a big fan of Rick Reilly via the Washington Post.
NBC Sports has revamped its website. Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing.
Mark Selig of Backstory talks to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about how he broke the story about a gay player in the Brewers’ minor league system.
Long-time St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklacz explains why he left newspapers to do sports talk radio.
Fox Sports’ Katie Nolan does a SI Media podcast with Richard Deitsch.