The eighth female umpire to ever work in an affiliated league debuts in June
Christine Wren (1975-1977)
The early 1970s were difficult times for women trying to get into a male dominated field and Gera faced a harsh backlash for being the first female ump. Three years laser, Christine Wren became the second female ump. She had attended the Bill Kinnamon Specialized Umpire Training Course in Southern California and had officiated baseball, football, and basketball at different amateur levels. She caught the eye of Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley, who called her at the auto body shop where she worked and invited her to work an exhibition game between USC and the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
She jumped at the chance and did the exhibition game, then was asked to ump during spring training. Her performance in spring training landed her a gig in the Class A Northwest League, where she worked for two years. It wasn’t easy. Like Gera, Wren endured sexist comments and gender bias. She also suffered a broken collarbone on a baseball that hit her as she worked behind home plate in one game.
Wren was hoping to be promoted to Double-A, but was instead moved to another Class A league, the Midwest league, by Barney Dreary, who was the administrator for the MLB Umpire Development Program. At the time, Dreary told reporters:
“For a girl, she’s made of sturdy stuff. But, you see, that’s what we’re worried about, whether she can take the physical punishment. You never hear the men complaining, because the pain is second nature, just part of the job. And I doubt very seriously any of the players tried to set her up to get hurt. If anything, I think they were more prone to protect her.”
Rather than work in the Midwest League, Wren retired from umpiring. She went on to work in other male-dominated fields, like truck driving and as a school computer technician. After leaving baseball, she didn’t talk much about her career as an umpire for many years. She had been treated poorly on the field, but didn’t want to admit it to people because she felt it would reflect badly on baseball, a sport she loved. In fact, she reflected on her post-umpiring life with this story:
“When I first left umpiring, I bought a house that sat above a ballpark that I could see—I bought it for that reason. They played Finger League baseball games there, high school level or older. I called a balk from my deck once. I had to run inside—they didn’t know where it came from, or that I was watching. Well, it’s not my fault—they blew it, I didn’t.”