Female umpiring crew make IBL history
Left to right: Elise Lallement, Lisa Turbitt, Taylor Taccone
By: Scott Langdon
Canadian Baseball Network
BRANTFORD, , Ont. _ A 10-foot-tall man wearing a baseball uniform and carrying a Rawlings infielder’s glove to snatch foul balls strutted around the grounds on stilts. A trio called This, That and the Other Thing belted out hurtin’ tunes. A 13-person line dancing troupe called The Waistliners, outfitted in bright blue shirts and red cowboy hats, stepped their sequences for the crowd of 500-600 spectators.
But it was the umpiring crew that made some baseball history on Country Music Night at Arnold Anderson Stadium last week.
Lisa Turbitt of Burlington, Ont., Elise Lallement, Ottawa, Ont. and Taylor Taccone, London, Ont. became the first all-female umpiring crew to work an Intercountry Baseball League (IBL) regular season game in its 98-year history. They are believed to be the first all-female crew to umpire in a men’s league of this calibre at the semi-pro or minor league level. IBL rosters typically include U.S. college and former professional players. More than 40 players who have played in the major leagues have performed in the IBL.
Individual female umpires have worked some minor league games including Toronto’s Shanna Kook, Canada’s only female professional umpire. She worked in the Pioneer League for two seasons.
“We have searched records across North America as best we can. As far as we can tell, this is the first time this has happened in a regular season game in a men’s league of our calibre,” said John Kastner, IBL Commissioner.
“We didn’t do this as a gimmick. The umpires have to be good enough,” he added.
Turbitt, 47, recently became the first woman appointed to the World Baseball Softball Confederation Baseball Umpiring Commission and will be Umpire Director at the Women’s World Cup in Korea later this year. She has umpired many IBL games as well as 16 national and international championship tournaments. Lallement, 31 and Taccone, 23, are certified level 4 umpires. Both women have worked IBL games. Turbitt and Lallement are trainers in Baseball Canada’s National Umpires Certification Program.
IBL Umpire-in-Chief, Andy Herrington, wanted to break new ground this season, his first in the role.
“I thought it was something that should be done for the progression of the sport. On the personal side, like any parent, I wanted my daughter to see there are limitless opportunities in life,” he said.
It was a special night for the three women, but just another game to umpire.
“I don’t see myself as a role model,” said Lallement. “I umpire because I enjoy it and I want to push myself to be better.”
Turbitt agrees. “This is a story for today so it doesn’t have to be a story in the future,” she said.
Taccone started umpiring in her early teens in her hometown of Guelph, Ont. because it was “a better job than a paper route.” She was happy to break new ground with Turbitt and Lallement, but agreed it was “just another game.”
Sean Reilly, the IBL’s all-time hits and home run leader, was the Kitchener Panthers’ designated hitter for the game against the hometown Red Sox. He has known Turbitt for years.
“Lisa was a coach on my midget team. She’s a good umpire. I usually remember umpires for the bad calls they make. I don’t remember Lisa making any,” he said before the game.
It looked like he might have been thinking differently after Turbitt rung him up on a called third strike in the top of the first inning.
“I feel it was a normal game. The players knew something was different for the first couple of innings. Then it just became a baseball game. The players complained when things didn’t go their way as players usually do. But they were respectful and treated the umpires as umpires,” Herrington said.
Dora Bowald of Brantford, a mother of two daughters, sat behind home plate. She thought about the historical nature of the game differently than the umpires.
“I didn’t realize the umpires were all women. That’s unexpected and really great,” she said. She turned to ask her 14-year-old daughter, Anna, seated in the row behind, about her thoughts.
Surprised, Anna looked out across the diamond, looked down to her Mom and said: “Wow. That’s exciting. It’s inspiring.”
It could be that Anna wasn’t the only baseball fan singing a different tune about umpires on Country Music Night at Arnold Anderson Stadium last week.