[greymule]

For what it's worth, Jackie, 33 years ago I played in a semi-pro tournament that engendered two big stories in the local newspapers: (1) the tournament was going to use a 20-second clock to time the pitchers, and any time the clock ran down a ball would be called; MLB sent Monte Irvin and a couple of bigwigs to observe the clock in action with an eye to using it to speed up games in the majors, and (2) one of the umpires was a woman, Bernice Gara, who went on to umpire in the minors (I believe she died not long ago).

As for the clock experiment, though the pitchers ignored the clock, no ball was called for clock expiration in the entire tournament. As for the woman ump, I think some fans attended just to see if it was really true. She held up well under the pressure, though. In those days, teams as well as spectators really got on umps and opponents. "Hey, Baby, git the makeup out yer eyes and look at the play!" Guys on my own team said they wouldn't argue with her--for fear she'd start crying.

Years later, Bernice Gara told an interviewer that the taunts over the years really did hurt. But she hung with it and apparently had a pretty respectable career.