Jessica Mendoza would probably find this insulting, too.

Jessica Mendoza replaced Curt Schilling as the third person in the booth for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecasts and people lost their minds. I can’t believe the misogynistic vitriol over that decision. Sure, the cynical among us might think it was done solely because she was a woman and ESPN anted to expand their audience. I guess they’d rather have a Islamophobic male who collects Nazi memorabilia to a woman who should stick to softball, according to come Twitter twits (“twits,” not “tweets”; no typo there for a change).

In my regular visit to Amazon for samples of Kindle books, I came across this: Questions Women Want To Know About Baseball, by Sophia Grace.

First of all, shouldn’t it be answers women want to know?

The length of the book — which was published last year — is 31 “pages.” The sample consists of “What is a perfect game?” and “What is the strike zone?” There’s no table of contents so I have no idea what aspects of the game the other questions consider.

The answer to the second sample query begins: “The strike zone is the area where the batter might hit the ball–anywhere over the home plate below the batter’s elbow and above his kneecap.” (My emphasis. Is “the home plate” like “the Iraq?”)

Elbows? Really? In that case, Carl Yazstremski must have had the largest strike zone in the world. (And just one kneecap? Not both?)

The answer continues, “If the batter does not swing and the pitch went through the strike zone, it counts as a strike. For example, if the pitch was so fast that the batter didn’t swing, it would be a strike.”

Hmmm.

Again, I don’t know any of the other questions, but if the answers are similar, I would find this insulting not just to women, but to sentient beings. Newbies coming to the game might get an extremely elementary introduction to baseball, but… I can’t even go on. My mind is a whirl.

Questions is obviously self-published. After reading enough of these, I’m wondering if authors shouldn’t have to apply for some sort of certification, like a driver’s license, showing they have at least a degree of understanding about their topic.

And I haven’t even touched why some believe women need a separate primer on baseball.