Ria Cortesio is a former American
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
umpire
An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection.
The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...
, working games at the
Double A level. In 2007, she became the first woman since
Pam Postema
Pam Postema (born April 1954 in Willard, Ohio) is a former American baseball umpire. In 1988 she became the first female baseball umpire to officiate a Major League Baseball spring training game. For her unique contributions to the game, she was i ...
in 1989 to work a Major league exhibition game. The 2007 season was her ninth and final professional season and fifth at the Double A level.
Umpiring career
Cortesio attended five-week umpire school. She began umpiring professionally in the minor leagues in 1999,
in the short-season
Pioneer League.
In 2002, she began umpiring at the Double A level,
spending five seasons in the
Southern League.
She worked both the 2006
All-Star Futures Game
The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball (MLB) in conjunction with the mid-summer MLB All-Star Game. A team of American League-affiliated prospects competes against a team of National League ...
and
Home Run Derby.
On March 29, 2007, she became the first woman umpire to work in a Major League Baseball exhibition game since Postema in 1989, when she served alternately as the first and third base umpire in a
spring training
Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...
game between the
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...
and
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The f ...
.
Allegations of sexism in termination
At the conclusion of the 2007 season, she was released. According to fellow umpire Kate Sargeant, Cortesio's male colleagues colluded against her to block her advancement to
Triple A,
where she would have received major league supervision.
Cortesio was the top-ranked Double-A umpire at the start of the 2007 season, meaning she would have been eligible for promotion to Triple-A had any umpires at that level retired;
Sargeant alleges the Triple-A umpires colluded to not retire and thus not create an opening for Cortesio until the rankings were re-shuffled.
By mid-season, when rankings were re-shuffled, hers had dropped from the top spot.
According to
FanGraphs, the minor leagues had a policy to fire any umpire not promoted after five years; since the 2007 season was her fifth, she was fired.
Legacy
Cortesio was the fifth female umpire in the history of the game, after
Bernice Gera
Bernice Shiner Gera (June 15, 1931 – September 23, 1992) was an American baseball umpire. She became the first woman to umpire a professional baseball game in 1972, retiring after one game citing the resentment of other umpires.
Life
Born in ...
,
Christine Wren
Christine Wren (born 1949) is an American former professional baseball umpire. She was the second woman to umpire professionally in organized baseball, and the first woman to work for a full baseball season. Wren completed three seasons as an ump, ...
, Postema, and Theresa Cox Fairlady.
One of her masks is in the
Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
.
She is supportive of other women umpires who have come after her.
Personal
Cortesio was born in
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...
, in 1976, and is of Italian and Greek descent. She attended
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...
in
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
.
After her work as a minor league umpire ended, she worked some
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
games and spent some time in Greece.
She now resides in
Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...
, where she has a desk job.
See also
*
Women in baseball
Women have a long history in American baseball and many women's teams have existed over the years. Baseball was played at women's colleges in New York and New England as early as the mid-nineteenth century; teams were formed at Vassar College, ...
References
Living people
Minor league baseball umpires
Rice University alumni
1976 births
American people of Italian descent
American people of Greek descent
People from Davenport, Iowa
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