ESPN announced that Schilling would not be working Sunday Night Baseball for the rest of the season, after the former Boston Red Sox pitcher posted a controversial tweet last month. (Getty)
Curt Schilling won’t be in the booth on Sunday Night Baseball for the rest of the season. Instead, former Stanford softball star Jessica Mendoza will take over after ESPN announced that it had removed Schilling from the night.
But why?
It all began in August when Schilling was removed from covering the Little League World Series after posting a controversial tweet:
In addition to the rest of the LLWS broadcast, Schilling missed the August 31 Sunday Night Baseball game as well, the same night that Jake Arrieta threw a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mendoza made broadcast history that night, stepping in for Schilling, and becoming the first woman to call an ESPN MLB game as an analyst.
Now, Mendoza, who won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. women’s softball team, will continue to make history.
ESPN announced earlier this week that Schilling would not appear on the broadcast for the rest of the year as well as the Wild Card playoff game. The network released the following statement:
At all times during the course of their engagement with us, our commentators are directly linked to ESPN and are the face of our brand. We are a sports media company. Curt’s actions have not been consistent with his contractual obligations, nor have they been professionally handled; they have obviously not reflected well on the company. As a result, he will not appear on ESPN through the remainder of the regular season and our Wild Card playoff game.
After he was removed from the LLWS broadcast, Schilling had his own statement, saying, “Bad choices have bad consequences and this was a bad decision in every way on my part.”