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The Stained Grass Window
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AP Photo from spring training 2008, during which umpires Perry Barber, Ila Valcarcel, Theresa Fairlady, and Mona Osborne became the first four-woman umpiring crew in major league baseball history. Extremely obscure major league baseball history.
What took so long?
To read more about this unsung and long overdue event, log onto Perry's blog, "Dishing It... and Taking It, Too" by clicking on the link below and going to the February 2008 archives.
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Umpires left to right: Perry Barber, Ila Valcarcel, Theresa Fairlady, Mona Osborne
Photo courtesy of the Associated Press
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** Her sordid past: Before Perry started umpiring in 1981, she was a songwriter and guitar soloist who opened shows for Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel.
** 2009 marks Perry's 29th season umpiring all levels of amateur and professional baseball. She is the only woman to have umpired major league exhibition games in both the United States and Japan, and has taught umpiring to public school students under the aegis of the Sports Officiating Study (SOS) program sponsored by the New York City Department of Education.
** By clicking on the link below you can log onto the Amateur Baseball Umpires Association (ABUA) website and read Perry's first-person account of her trip to Taipei, Taiwan during August of 2006, where she represented the United States as one of seventeen umpires who worked the Women's World Cup of Baseball Championships.
** Log onto the Referee Magazine website by clicking on the link below to read Perry's story about top NHL referee Kerry Fraser, "Seeing the Ice." You can also access other of her stories by going to the Referee archives for profiles of NBA referees John Vanak (11/89), Mendy Rudolph (3/93) and Violet Palmer and Dee Kantner (3/98); NFL referee Dave Hamilton (11/97); baseball umpire Lee Weyer (5/89); MLUA attorney Richie Phillips (3/97); and NCAA basketball referee Ed Hightower (3/93).
** October 8th, 2006 heralded the fifty-year anniversary of Don Larsen's Perfect Game, the only perfect game ever pitched during the World Series. Larsen hurled his gem during the fifth game of the 1956 Fall Classic on a beautiful autumn Monday in the Bronx. Click on the link below for news about the banquet at the Marriott Marquis in New York City where Larsen's historic achievement was celebrated.
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