Pam Postema (born April 1954)[1] is a baseball umpire most notable for being the first female to ever officiate a Major League Baseball spring training game. For her unique contributions to the game, she was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary Shrine of the Eternals in 2000.[2]
Postema first applied to the Al Somers Umpire School, now the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School,[3] in 1976, and after rejecting her twice, the school admitted her.[4] In 1977, Postema received an offer for a job in the rookie Gulf Coast League. She spent two years there, after which she had two year stints in both single-A and double-A, becoming the first female to umpire at those levels, before being promoted to triple-A baseball in the Pacific Coast League. During her six years at the AAA level, Postema was looked highly upon by many players, although other players objected to the notion of a female umpire.[5]
Although often considered a prospect for major league umpiring, Pam Postema never received the call until 1988, when Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti offered her a contract to officiate at the MLB level during spring training. Later that year, Giamatti also offered her a chance to umpire at the "Hall of Fame Game" between the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves. Both opportunities looked promising, but Giamatti died soon thereafter in 1989, and Postema never again got the chance to umpire in the major leagues. In December of 1989, the Triple-A Alliance cancelled Postema's contract after 13 years of well-regarded experience in the minor leagues. She then filed a sex-discrimination lawsuit at the federal level, which was settled out of court.
In 1992, Postema published a book entitled You've Gotta Have Balls to Make It In This League. Following her umpiring career, she worked as a trucker, a factory worker,[6] and later a welder, but quit in order to take care of her father, who was afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.[7] On March 29, 2007, Ria Cortesio became the second female umpire to work a Major League spring training game.