I have never seen a women umpire in baseball,a women ref in baseketball, and in football.Do they exist in the MLB,NFL,and NBA or is a rule of some sort that they can’t be?
There was a female umpire in the 70’s, she went through all the training and certification and when she got to her first major league game she blew a call and when a player yelled at her she burst into tears and quit. Thus setting back equality in sports about 25 years. I’m not sure about other sports, but wasn’t there a female basketball PLAYER in the NBA before the WNBA was formed? I was young at the time, maybe I’m misremembering.
There has NEVER been a female major league umpire in baseball! A few have been minor league umpires, and one (I believe her name was Pam Postema) was under strong consideration, at one point, for promotion to the big leagues. It never happened, and no good reason was ever given.
Personally, I don’t care about the gender of an umpire. I’d just like some umpires of EITHER gender who’d be willing to follow the rule book in calling balls and strikes! All the silly talk about “juiced baseballs” would disappear quickly if umpires hadn’t shrunk the strike zone to the size of a postage stamp.
Voguevixen, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but there was no female umpire in the major leagues and no incident anything like what you describe. There’s also no “training and certification” involved. Major league umpires work their way up through the minors like players do. Some to to umpiring schools; some don’t. Some guy’s been feeding you a line.
The closest a woman has ever come to being a major league umpire was Pam Postema, who made it to AAA and certainly never ran off the field in tears. She was a pretty good ump by all accounts but never did get picked, and she retired a few years back. Very few umpires actually make it to the majors; it’s a more exclusive clun than major league PLAYERS.
Whoa! A thousand pardons if I gave the wrong info. I’d read it in some flaky paperback I picked up in a thrift store (which has since been given back to the thrift store, so I couldn’t tell you what it was.) I’ll keep looking online and see if I can come up with something similar so you don’t think I’m 100% crazy.
The NBA introduced the first female regular season officials in the 1997-1998 season.
Found this from majorleagueumps.com:
Didn’t name names, though…I’ll keep looking! (I did find the NBA info, but my good buddy Alpha beat me to the punch.)
IIRC, Pam Postema was on the short-list for AAA umps to be called up, but she was also getting heat from Giamatti(?) to start calling the high strike. She felt she was being squeezed…MLB management was telling her she had to start calling letter-high strikes, and the players were going ballistic over those calls. Eventually, the controversy started besmirching her good name, and she faded into the background. Within a year or two, she was out of baseball.
While there are female refs in the NBA, I haven’t seen many at the Division I level in men’s college b-ball.
In football, I have never seen a female official above the high school level. And those at the high school level have always been line judges or head linesmen, which are sort of the entry level referee jobs. I’ve never seen a woman as the umpire (the one who stands a few yards behind the defensive line) or as the referee (the head official.)
Basketball would be the easiest sport for women officials to break into because women have been playing basketball for a while now and are recognized more for their play in that sport than most others.
Does the MLS have any female officials?
I’m not sure if MLS has any female refs or not. But I can tell you that there are many FIFA certified female referees. The Women’s World Cup was refereed entirely by females and the Pro-soccer action around here often has at least one female referee a game.