When MLB said no to Bernice

Jen Pawol made history as the first female Major League umpire last Saturday in the doubleheader between the Miami Marlins and the Braves in Atlanta.

The historic moment comes more than 50 years after Bernice Gera had a similar ambition.

According to an article published by People.com, Gera loved baseball, a cornerstone of his eventful childhood. He played with his brothers and rarely missed a Brooklyn Dodgers game (before the team moved to Los Angeles in the late 1950s).

Working as a secretary, baseball was her constant concern. She longed to work for a major league team and asked every organization for a job, but every team refused.

“At first, I just tried to get a job at any club, doing whatever I could,” he said in a 1972 interview. “I would have sold peanuts if they'd wanted me. But the response was negative on every level.”

“I waited three months for a team to respond. And can you believe I spent sleepless nights praying they'd give me the job?” she added. “When they said no, I decided to become a referee.”

In 1966, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She applied to the Al Somers Umpire School and was accepted in 1967. She was ready to attend until Al Somers realized her name was “Bernice,” not “Bernie.” He told her that “there had never been a woman in his umpire school, and there never would be.”

So, at 36, Gera enrolled in the Florida Baseball School after umpiring Little League games in the early 1960s. The school was predominantly male, and she spent the six weeks of the program living in a motel because there were no facilities for female students.

At night, her teammates would throw cans at her door. After completing her training, the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL) rejected her application, claiming she didn't meet the physical requirements for the umpire position.

Determined, Gera wrote several letters to the director of the office of umpire development, but received no response. She appealed to baseball commissioner William Eckert, but Eckert referred the case to the director of the office of umpire development.

Gera decided to take the matter to court. In 1969, she filed multiple formal complaints with the New York State Commission on Human Rights.

In April 1971, the Appellate Division issued a ruling on the case, upholding the Human Rights Appeals Board's previous order that organized baseball had discriminated against Gera because of her sex.

After several years in court, he won the right to umpires in 1972. That April, he was granted a one-year minor league contract.

“Throughout this entire case, I felt devastated. I've always wondered if it was worth it,” Gera said, reflecting on the long legal battle.

“They didn’t want me in the country,” he once told writer and author Nora Ephron in an interview for “Esquire” magazine.

“It all depended on whether I could handle it. I handled it. But then I'd come home and cry like a baby.”

Debut and farewell

On June 24, 1972, Gera made his professional debut. The game, originally scheduled for the previous day, was delayed due to the remnants of Hurricane Agnes.

The Class A Geneva Rangers and the Auburn Phillies played a doubleheader. More than 2,000 fans were in the stands to watch.

While the crowd cheered her in the early innings, in the fourth, she called Auburn's Terry Ford safe, but soon reversed the call on the field and declared him out. Auburn manager Nolan Campbell stormed onto the field and demanded to know why he had overturned the call.

Gera admitted to making a mistake. Campbell recalled that he told her, “That’s the second mistake you made. The first was putting on that uniform.” According to Gera’s recollection, Campbell told her, “You made two mistakes. The first was that you should have stayed in the kitchen peeling potatoes.”

Gera ejected Campbell from the game. After the game, Gera informed Geneva general manager Joe McDonough of her resignation. She left the stadium in tears and, accompanied by her husband, drove away in her referee uniform.

Gera never umpired another professional baseball game again.

“In a way, they managed to get rid of me,” he said in his 1972 interview. “But, in a way, I've done it too. I've broken the barrier. It can be done. Now I don't care what people say. No one has been through what I've been through. You have to live it to understand it.”

However, she didn't leave baseball for good. In 1974, the New York Mets hired her to work in the team's community relations department, commuting to Shea Stadium daily.

Gera worked there for several years before her position was finally eliminated. She and her husband, Steve Gera, later moved to Pembroke Pines, Florida, where she died of kidney cancer at the age of 61.

Her last wish was for her ashes to be scattered at a stadium that meant a lot to her, Shea Stadium. Upon leaving the Mets bullpen, Steve scattered her ashes on the diamond.

The shoes Bernice wore during her historic 1972 game are preserved in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, along with a photo of her.