Female ump will soak up big weekend
PITTSBURGH – Ria Cortesio is eager to get her first look at PNC Park – the double-decked stands, the Roberto Clemente bridge in left field, the Allegheny River beyond the wall in right.
The fans packing the seats for the All-Star festivities will see something new, too: a woman working on a major league field as an umpire.
“I don’t do this job to get on TV,” she said this week. “But I hope it will raise the awareness a little.”
In her fourth year at Double-A, Cortesio is the lone female umpire in professional ball. Picked from the Southern League, she will be at third base today when top minor league prospects play in the Futures Game.
Cortesio started this season back in school, as a substitute teacher when minor league umpires went on strike in a pay dispute. Out nearly two months, their gains were modest and included a $3 bump in per diem that took her to $25 a day.
Major league umpires get $357 daily, although they must cover their own hotel costs. During her time in Pittsburgh, Cortesio will be paid at the big-league rate.
“I’ll make as much in one day in per diem as we get in two weeks at Double-A,” she said. “That money is already spent, though. I needed it to pay the bills back home.”
At 29 and in her eighth year overall, Cortesio represents the majors’ best – and only, for now – chance at its first female umpire. There have been five other female umps in pro ball, and Pam Postema got the closest to making it when she did spring training games in the late 1980s.
Cortesio began in the Pioneer League and later worked in the Midwest League.
Cortesio’s future depends on how she’s ranked against other Double-A umps, as rated by minor league supervisors.
If she reaches Triple-A, big league evaluators will grade her. Yet even then, there’s little turnover on the 68-man umpiring staff in the majors.
As it stands, Cortesio makes about $2,600 per month. Her three-person crew drives an average of 24,000 miles over a full season.
Cortesio worked Friday night in Jackson, Tenn., and will do a game in Huntsville, Ala., on Wednesday night.