Suing baseball

Today marks the 53rd anniversary of Bernice Gera filing a lawsuit against the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, claiming her civil rights are being violated because she is not allowed to be an umpire in the minor leagues.

Gera, a 39-year-old homemaker originally from Indiana County, Pa., successfully completes umpire school and signs a contract to work in the short-season, Class A New York-Penn League.

The NAPBL, though, voids the contract less than a week later without explanation, leading Gera to file her lawsuit in 1971.

Gera wins her lawsuit 10 months later and makes her debut on June 24, 1972, becoming the first female umpire in pro baseball.

Bernice Gera and Nolan Campbell swapping opinions

She works the bases in the first game of a doubleheader between the Geneva Rangers and Auburn Phillies in upstate New York, making her debut a memorable one by ejecting Auburn manager Nolan Campbell in the fourth inning.

One game, though, is enough for Gera.

She resigns in protest before the second game of the doubleheader after fellow umpire Doug Hartmayer refuses to come to her aid during her heated argument with Campbell during the fourth inning of the first game.

Gera never again umpires in affiliated baseball.

She would die in 1992 of kidney cancer.

Today, her uniform and pink whiskbroom may be found at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. – 140 miles east of where Gera umpires her one and only pro game in Geneva.

“Baseball has fought me for years,” Gera says shortly after walking away from the game in 1972. “In my heart I feel they have truly gone out of their way to hurt me because I am a woman.

“People have been calling me a quitter, but if I was a quitter I never would have fought it so long. … In a way, they succeeded in getting rid of me, but in a way I’ve succeeded too. I’ve broken the barrier. It can be done. I don’t care what people say now. People haven’t gone through what I’ve gone through. You have to experience it to understand it.”