This article was written by Amanda Lane Cumming. This article was published in Spring Baseball Research Journal. On June 24, , Bernice Gera became the first woman to umpire a professional baseball game. Immediately after the game ended, she quit. She fought baseball for five years for the chance to umpire a professional game. Why fight so long for an umpiring career, just to give it up after one game? We think of pioneers as being stoic, strong, and preternaturally gifted at the thing they are pursuing.
She was just a woman standing in front of organized baseball, asking it to accept her. Her parents divorced when she was two years old and abandoned their five children. Bernice and her siblings moved frequently growing up, being passed from relative to relative. Baseball became an anchor for her throughout her childhood tumult. Just rooting for a team makes you feel part of it. She got a chance when she was eight years old.
She became quite a hitter. Then everybody wanted her. She worked as a secretary, but baseball was never far from her mind. Quite a few times I was almost fired because of it. Her childhood gave her a lifelong love for baseball and imbued in her a desire to help children. After her day job, she taught kids to play baseball in parks and community centers.
During these events, she would get a chance to flex her own baseball muscle, putting on hitting demonstrations with male baseball players, including major leaguers Roger Maris, Cal Abrams, and Sid Gordon. A newspaper in Louisiana printed a picture of her with Roger Maris, following a demonstration they participated in at Coney Island in At some point she divorced Thomas.
Gera fostered an intense desire to be part of baseball. She sent inquiries to every major league team, asking for a job. Every team declined. But the answer was negative all the way around. I waited three months for one team to answer. And would you believe that I stayed up nights praying for it to come through? When they said no, I decided to become an umpire. She had been feeling dejected about not finding a job in baseball, when it suddenly hit her.
