I’m a baseball umpire of thirty years’ experience and because I’m baseball-trained, I seldom work softball. However, this fall I had the pleasure of umpiring a couple of girls’ fast pitch softball games in Manhattan, and really enjoyed the competitive spirit and camaraderie among the players. I was surprised by the level of skill and competition; the girls pitched, hit, and fielded with an intensity equal to that of any men’s game I’ve ever worked, and the pitching was truly eye-opening. One pitcher was throwing so hard, an errant fastball hit my shinguard and it hurt like hell!

After finishing up the first game, I was off by myself changing out of my plate gear when a couple of the young ladies wandered by and thanked me for my efforts. Then, much to my shock, they told me I’m the first woman umpire they’d ever seen! I was devastated, having lulled myself into believing that because so many girls and young women are now playing softball, that women umpiring would naturally follow. That this is not true is a puzzle, and a disheartening one, and the paucity of women in so many coaching, administrative, and executive positions within the softball industry is equally mystifying.

An issue can’t be addressed until it’s identified, so thank you for shining a light on these unhappy statistics. Until young women are drawn into the culture of the sports they play at as young an age as the boys are into theirs, the pipeline leading to jobs in front office and support positions, as well as in umpiring and coaching, will continue to be a deep, dark void. Women must mentor and support other women, and we need to cultivate the support of the men in positions to change things, in order to crack open the stained grass window that baseball and softball still keep shut tight whenever we show up, and opportunities in those arenas presented as career and recreation choices for us, something we would be challenged by and excel at, rather than as the almost exclusive province of men.

You’re absolutely right to point out that things have regressed during the last several decades. When I started umpiring in 1981, there was one woman umpire in all of professional baseball, Pam Postema, and she was never given the opportunity to umpire a regular season major league game. Almost thirty years later, there are none. Zero, at any level of minor or major league baseball. Now I find out there are way fewer even in softball than I previously believed. A very sad state of affairs indeed, not just because we’re consequently missing out on careers and avocations that are rewarding on so many different levels, but because of what it says about the way we are valued as athletes and administrators.

Perhaps your generation will be the one to change things for the better, Megan. After reading your thoughtful and thought-provoking piece, I have high hopes it will be!