Pam Postema

• Height 5' 8", Weight 140 lb.

• Born 1954 in Norwalk, OH USA

Biographical Information

Pam Postema was the first female umpire to work major league spring training games and the first to work on the AAA level. There was hope in the 1980s that she would be called up to the major leagues but these hopes were later dashed.

She attended umpire school under Al Somers, having had to threaten a lawsuit to gain admittance; Somers was convinced that umpiring was no job for a woman, an attitude Pam would run into repeatedly over the next few years. Postema began working in the Gulf Coast League in 1977 and 1978. She spent two years in the Class-A Florida State League, two years in the AA Texas League, and arrived in the Pacific Coast League in 1983. Postema worked seven years in the PCL, umpired during spring training in 1988 and 1989, and officated the 1988 Hall of Fame Game between the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves.

Many believe the death of Commissioner Bart Giamatti ended Postema's career, as she was not renewed in the months after his sudden death in 1989. Giamatti was her biggest supporter in an otherwise generally hostile environment. In 1991, she filed a sex-discrimination lawsuit against Major League Baseball. The case was settled out of court in 1997.