Keller @ Large: Sexist Backlash Over Female Sportscaster

BOSTON (CBS) - Oh, the sheer horror! A woman!

Doing baseball playoff color for the first time ever!

No wonder some corners of social media went nuts Tuesday night when former college and Olympic softball star Jessica Mendoza became the first woman to do color for a nationally-televised baseball playoff game, not as some marginalized sideline reporter, but as a full-fledged member of the lead broadcast team.

"Why do I turn on baseball and hear a woman's voice in the broadcast booth?!?," tweeted one typical critic. "We watch sports to get away from women."

Who's we, wondered Rod Walkey of Dover as he arrived at the annual Belles of the Brawl boxing fundraiser for breast-cancer research. "It doesn't make any sense to me, maybe because I'm married with three daughters."

"Sometimes people aren't ready," added Julie Kelly, co-founder of the group Haymakers for Hope that produced the boxing event. "But I just think girls can do whatever they want to do."

And do it well, judging from what appeared to be the majority reaction to Mendoza's performance.

Noted Jen Royle, a former female sportscaster who was one of the brawling belles at the charity function: "Those people who said that they watch baseball to get away from women? Well they must be hanging out with some really awful women."