When something that should have happened decades earlier finally occurs, does it still deserve to be celebrated as a historic first?
If so, by whom?
Those were the questions in my mind when Jen Pawol became the first woman to umpire in a Major League Baseball regular-season game.
In a day-night doubleheader between Atlanta and Miami, Pawol was the first base umpire in Game One and moved to third for the nightcap. The next day she worked behind the plate, calling balls and strikes.
Her job performance was rated comparably to male umpires across the majors, demonstrating that there’s little difference between male and female competency among the similarly qualified.
She was complimented by the managers of both teams and several players.
To listen to MLB’s self-congratulatory pronouncements that weekend, it would be easy to conclude that her achievements were the culmination of a long slog by organized baseball to overcome antiquated societal norms.
As the record shows, however, this historic first indeed was cause for celebration, despite the baseball establishment rather than because of its ongoing efforts to right a wrong.
MLB is 28 years behind pro basketball in opening the officiating ranks to both genders, and 10 years behind pro football. Violet Palmer, the NBA’s pioneer, retired in 2016 after 19 seasons at basketball’s highest level.
By comparison:
Bernice Gera celebrated her 41st birthday just nine days before she became the first woman to umpire a professional baseball game (at any level) more than 50 years ago. Literally cursed by some of her umpiring colleagues as an “attack on baseball’s male fraternity,” she resigned after calling one game.
A historical marker in her hometown of Ernest, Pennsylvania notes, in part:
“ . . . Overcame discrimination and death threats to shatter gender barrier. Barred by minor league baseball for 5 years before winning landmark lawsuit. Debuted June 24, 1972 in New York-Pennsylvania League game at Geneva, NY.
“Ground-breaking achievement thrust her into national spotlight and opened doors for other women and men denied umpiring opportunities because of arbitrary restrictions . . . “
Three years later Christine Wren, who worked games in the Northwest League in 1975-76 and the Midwest League in 1977, became the first woman to umpire in a professional league for a full season.
She is the first woman to work home plate in a pro game and the first woman to umpire a minor league all-star game. Her chest protector is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But she never made it out of Class A.
Facing skepticism and doubt about a woman’s ability to handle the pressures of officiating, she moved on to other employment after three futile years.
Wren’s last year was Pam Postema’s first. Her 12-year career as a minor league umpire included two years in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League, two years each in A and Double-A and six in Triple-A. She had a realistic prospect of becoming a major league umpire until MLB commissioner Bart Giamatti’s fatal heart attack slammed the door.
In Postema’s 1992 book You’ve Gotta Have Balls to Make It in This League, she details the obstacles she encountered. Among them:
Although she placed 17th in a class of 100 at the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School, she couldn’t find a job for months after graduating.
In 1984 she ejected a batboy who, at the direction of players in that dugout, refused her instruction to remove a chair that had been thrown onto the field of play by that team’s manager after he had been tossed for arguing a called strike.
In 1989 the Triple-A Alliance canceled her contract despite more than a decade of well-regarded performance.
I could cite more examples and some sex discrimination lawsuits, but you get the drift. Which brings me back to those questions.
Jen Pawol’s breakthrough definitely is historic and should be hailed (though it’s only a first step toward equal opportunity and full-time jobs for women umpiring in the Bigs).
But the right to celebrate belongs to those who were part of the struggle, those fighting for a fair chance after decades of obfuscation, and all who see it for the travesty it was.
As for organized baseball and the chauvinists on the field and in the front offices, only hypocrites among them can possibly seek to join the bandwagon.
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Denny Dressman’s 17th book, a collaboration with Kansas City artist Anthony High titled Black Baseball’s Heyday – Capturing An Era in Art and Words, will be published in late summer. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.