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I am NOT commenting directly on Ria's situation; I never saw her work, so I have no opinion.
However, if it is true (as has been suggested above in this thread) that there are still some in baseball who think that a woman cannot umpire on the professional or MLB level...then I think they are clueless.
If a woman can run up-and-down the court for 48 minutes with the big boys in the NBA and develop into a playoff referee...then a woman can certainly umpire.
Frankly, the physical demands of umpiring are a lot less than refereeing, in my opinion. Sure, you may have to rotate a few times a game...but that, generally, requires running 90-feet. The NBA refs go up-and-down for 48 minutes...with a lot of quick starts and stops and changes of directions. (And yes, I'm aware of the physical demands of calling balls and strikes.)
I have always thought officiating baseball is more mentally demanding than officiating basketball. (Although, I'll admit the highest level I've ever worked in basketball is high school varsity (and y'all know I'm a former MiLBer).) And I for one am not going to say that a person cannot handle the mental rigor of baseball...just because she's a woman.
And let's be frank: a woman ref in the NBA is going to hear (and, no doubt, has heard) the same frank language on the court that any MLB umpire is going hear on the field.
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