(Editor’s note: MLB announced Wednesday that Jen Pawol would become the first woman to umpire an MLB game. The Athletic originally ran this story in June 2022.)
It was dark that Friday night, and Bernice Gera could hear a group of men outside her room at the Chanticleer Motel, drunk and obscene.
“We don’t need her!” they barked. “The woman umpire.”
The night before, Gera was feted over roasted chicken at a welcome dinner for the Geneva Rangers, a Class A minor-league baseball team. CBS, ABC and NBC sent reporters to Geneva, N.Y., to cover Gera. She signed baseballs and wore a gold charm necklace decorated with a bat, a mitt and a pearl.
The next night, she predicted, would be the happiest day of her life.
