After largely ignoring the MLB Wild Card round on its own airwaves earlier in October, ESPN finally got around to talking about the baseball playoffs on Tuesday — by bringing Jessica Mendoza on the Get Up set to smash a pancake with a bat as part of an NFL segment.
It’s become a go-to for ESPN this month to turn Jeff Saturday’s usual offensive line breakdown segment (did anyone ask for that, by the way?) into promo for other sports. Mendoza took her turn after P.K. Subban celebrated the start of the NHL season last week.
.@jessmendoza absolutely crushed that pancake ? pic.twitter.com/HBsnB3QIjJ
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) October 17, 2023
Subban talked hockey by walking the Get Up crew through the biggest hits in the sport last season.
"Those are the sickest pancakes we've ever seen!" ?@PKSubban1 shows us the three biggest hits from last season in the NHL ? pic.twitter.com/z6nwDu4OnP
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) October 10, 2023
At least ESPN got the timing right with NHL talk. They have rights for the sport as well as NHL Power Play on ESPN+, and of course want to juice viewership for those games.
But ESPN’s baseball broadcasts are done for the season. MLB fans don’t get any more Mendoza the rest of the way as WBD Sports and Fox Sports carry the rest of the postseason.
So someone at ESPN remembered baseball existed and wanted to bring Jessica Mendoza on. Still fine. They can talk about sports besides the ones they broadcast.
Is making the former softball player on the payroll smash a breakfast food the best way to do that, though? ESPN is evolving to more physical comedy and entertainment across its programming. But when a sport only gets one or two mentions week to week on-air, you don’t have to involve them in pancake gimmicks just to get some airtime.