ESPN Benches Curt Schilling for Remainder of MLB Season

Analyst Jessica Mendoza will replace former MLB star for the rest of the season

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Updated on Friday, Sept. 4 at 11 a.m. PT: Jessica Mendoza has been named Curt Schilling’s replacement on “Sunday Night Baseball” for the rest of the season.

Previously:

ESPN analyst Curt Schilling has been removed from the network’s baseball coverage for the remainder of the season following a controversial tweet last month comparing Muslims to Nazis.

Schilling will no longer commentate on any “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcasts for the rest of the 2015 season, nor will he appear on the network’s broadcast of the American League Wild Card Game on Tuesday, Oct. 6,the network announced Thursday.

“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,” ESPN said in a statement to TheWrap.

“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.”

Former Red Sox and Phillies pitcher Schilling has been replaced by Jessica Mendoza for the rest of the season, ESPN announced on Friday, after she became the first-ever female “Sunday Night Baseball” analyst at the L.A. Dodgers-Chicago Cubs game on Aug. 30.

Mendoza, a gold-medal-winning Olympic softball player, won great praise for her work alongside Dan Shulman and John Kruk in the booth at Dodger Stadium that it secured her position for the remaining 2015 games.

Schilling had previously been removed from ESPN’s coverage of Little League World Series.

The former Major League Baseball star tweeted a photo of Adolf Hitler and the words: “It’s said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?” He accompanied the picture with the caption, “The math is staggering when you get to the true #s.”

“Curt’s tweet was completely unacceptable, and in no way represents our company’s perspective,” the sports network said in a statement at the time.

Shilling later issued a formal apology on Twitter, writing, “I understand and accept my suspension. 100% my fault. Bad choices have bad consequences and this was a bad decision in every way on my part.”

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