ESPN announced Wednesday that the 35-year-old Jessica Mendoza is now a permanent fixture in the Sunday prime-time booth. She'll join another new analyst, Aaron Boone, alongside returning play-by-play voice Dan Shulman.

With her new role, Mendoza, who lives in California and has two young children, made one particular request: She'll still call the Women's College World Series.
She and Boone will be the fifth different analyst team in six seasons for "Sunday Night Baseball" since Jon Miller and Joe Morgan departed after 21 years in 2010 — partly because Bobby Valentine and Terry Francona each left the booth to return to managing.

The 42-year-old Boone, who joined ESPN in 2010 after playing a dozen seasons in the majors, moves up from the Monday night games. "Sunday Night Baseball" also gets a new producer in Andy Reichwald, who also comes over from Mondays, while Buster Olney returns as the reporter.

"If this team establishes themselves as we hope and we think they can," Wildhack said, "it will be terrific for us, terrific for 'Sunday Night Baseball' and terrific for the sport."

What does Mendoza's full-time position mean for women in sports media?

Jessica Mendoza is paving the way for more opportunities for women in sports media. A surge of softball players who have graduated are taking a more active role in media. The domino effect of her full-time position is historic for women in sports. Never in the history of sports has a woman become a full-time baseball analyst on ESPN or any other network. Last year ESPN doubled their coverage of Women's softball to 84 games, covering all eight super regionals. If these numbers should increase, we should see more media stars in the making raising the bar for women in sports.


Catch Up on Jessica Mendoza's Rise to Full Time Prime Time:

Jessica Mendoza Responds to Sexist Criticism
Jessica Mendoza Pinch Hits for ESPN Baseball