Pam Postema

Pam Postema

Pam Postema was born in 1954 and is currently 71 years old. Pam Postema was born in Willard, Ohio, USA.

Pam Postema is a former American baseball umpire. She was the first female baseball umpire to preside over a Major League Baseball spring training game in 1988. In 2000, due to her extraordinary contributions to the game, Pam was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary’s Shrine of the Eternals.

In 1977, Postema got a job offer in the Gulf Coast League of Rookies, where she worked for two years. She later spent two-year periods in both Class A and Double A, setting a record as the first woman to participate at those levels. She was promoted to Triple-A baseball in the Pacific Coast League.

In her six years at the Triple-A level, Postema inspired many players. Although she was considered a prospect for major league umpiring, she never received a call until 1988, when Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti offered her a contract to officiate at the MLB level during spring training. Giamatti also gave her another opportunity to referee at the Hall of Fame Game between the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees.

Even though both opportunities appeared promising, Postema’s ultimate goal was to receive a contract with the major league. Unfortunately, after Giamatti's death in 1989, she never got the chance to umpire in the major leagues.

By the end of 1989, the Triple-A Alliance canceled her 13-year contract in the minor leagues. She later filed a sex-discrimination lawsuit, arguing that she deserved to be in the major leagues and that her gender was the only factor preventing her from getting there.

In 1992, Postema published her debut book, You’ve Gotta Have Balls to Make It In This League. She also worked as a trucker, a factory worker, and later a welder.

In her book, she narrates what it was like being an umpire in professional baseball. Over her thirteen seasons, from 1977 until her involuntary release in 1989, Postema umpired over two thousand games.

Postema’s story is one of courage and determination to succeed in a field dominated by men. She gives readers a closer view of umpiring, discussing the mindset required to make the right call, the weeks of training, and the challenges of dealing with problematic players and managers.

Throughout the story, she shares her experience with minor league stars while attempting to break the glass ceiling in professional baseball umpiring. She doesn’t present herself as a model citizen, focusing instead on her burning desire to make it to the big leagues. She offers insight into what it’s like to be an umpire, living on low wages and facing constant abuse from players, managers, and others in the baseball world.

Postema also expresses her bitterness over the bias and unfairness she believes blocked her chance to make it to the major leagues. Her life story in a male-dominated environment gives credibility to her allegations while providing a behind-the-scenes look at life in the minor leagues from an umpire’s point of view.

Postema candidly shares the highs and lows of her career, her mistakes, and the lessons she learned along the way. It is an excellent look at the behind-the-scenes of baseball.

Pam Postema: F.A.Q