Getting your player ready...
She’s safe!
Ria Cortesio hustled all over the infield and made her calls with an emphatic fist pump. Always in the right position, she did what every umpire hopes to do during a ballgame: She blended in.
Cortesio became the first female umpire to work a major-league exhibition game since Pam Postema in 1989 when she made calls on the bases Thursday as the Chicago Cubs beat an Arizona Diamondbacks split squad 7-4.
“It was pretty uneventful. I didn’t have much,” Cortesio said.
Cortesio is the only female umpire in professional baseball. At 30, she is starting her ninth year overall and fifth in Double-A. Once she makes it to Triple-A, she’ll be evaluated by major-league umpire supervisors.
