Ria Cortesio
Ria Cortesio is a former American baseball umpire, working games at the Double A level. In 2007, she became the first woman since Pam Postema 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[edit]
Cortesio attended five-week umpire school.[1] She began umpiring professionally in the minor leagues in 1999,[2] in the short-season Pioneer League.[3] In 2002, she began umpiring at the Double A level,[2] spending five seasons in the Southern League.[3]
She worked both the 2006 All-Star Futures Game and Home Run Derby.[4]
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 game between the Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks.[5]
Allegations of sexism in termination[edit]
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,[6] where she would have received major league supervision.[3] 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;[4] Sargeant alleges the Triple-A umpires colluded to not retire and thus not create an opening for Cortesio until the rankings were re-shuffled.[6] By mid-season, when rankings were re-shuffled, hers had dropped from the top spot.[4] 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.[6]
Legacy[edit]
Cortesio was the fifth female umpire in the history of the game, after Bernice Gera, Christine Wren, Postema, and Theresa Cox Fairlady.[2] One of her masks is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.[4]
She is supportive of other women umpires who have come after her.[3]
Personal[edit]
Cortesio was born in Davenport, Iowa, in 1976, and is of Italian and Greek descent.[citation needed] She attended Rice University in Houston, Texas.[4]
After her work as a minor league umpire ended, she worked some college games and spent some time in Greece.[3] She now resides in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she has a desk job.[3]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Baseball's Leading Lady". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ a b c "Minor league baseball is about to get its first female umpire since 2007". CBSSports.com. 21 June 2016. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ a b c d e f Batterson, Steve (21 July 2018). "Cortesio cheers every call Pawol makes". The Quad-City Times. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ a b c d e "Baseball's only female umpire fired". Chron. 2007-11-01. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ "Female umpire works MLB exhibition game". ESPN.com. 2007-03-30. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
- ^ a b c "Women Are Coming to Baseball, Like It or Not". FanGraphs Baseball. 2011-04-21. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
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