1st Baseball Woman Umpire Bernice Gera 1931 - 1992

Professional umpire. Born on June 15, 1931, in Ernest, Pennsylvania. Creating a sports milestone, Bernice Gera was the first professional woman umpire in the history of baseball. As a child, she began her lifelong love of the sport. Gera didn’t consider a career in baseball until after she had worked as a secretary for a while and got married. According to a Time magazine article, the idea to become an umpire just suddenly hit her one night. Gera sold her husband on the idea and enrolled in the Florida Baseball School in 1967.


As a training facility for a strictly male profession, the school had no facilities for Gera. Bernice Gera spent much of the six-week program living in a nearby motel. By several reports, she excelled in her training. But breaking into the field would prove to be enormously challenging. Gera was rejected by the National Association of Baseball Leagues (NABL), which claimed that she did not meet the physical requirements of the job.

Bernice Gera would not be deterred, however. She fought the NABL in court for several years before winning the right to umpire in 1972. On June 24, 1972, Gera made history as the first professional female umpire at a double-header between the Auburn Phillies and Geneva Rangers in New York-Pennsylvania League. Her victory was short-lived—she quit between games. According to The New York Times, Gera reportedly resigned because none of the other umpires would work with her on the field.

Although she stopped umpiring, Bernice Gera stayed in the game. She went to work for the New York Mets in the team’s community relations and promotions for several years before retiring to Florida.

Bernice Gera died of kidney cancer in Pembroke Pines, Florida, in 1992.