Ump Update

Ria Cortesio has gotten another assignment that signals her progress to the Show is still happening, though at a glacial pace.

Last year she worked the Futures Game, the minor league hot prospects' showcase attached to the All-Star hoopla. This spring she's working a major league exhibition game, another step in moving up. Not all umpires who work MLB exhibition games end up umpiring in the majors, but it is a usual "tryout" step umpires go through. Although umpires, like players, have to work their way up through the levels, they're not subject to sudden call-ups from the lower levels of the game; there are no Nuke Lalooshes among umpires.

When Ria gets promoted to AAA, it will probably be with the Pacific Coast League. Not because there will likely be an opening there first, nor because that league is less conservative, (Pam Postema spent her years umpiring AAA in the PCL), but because I won't have a chance to see her work.

Here's hoping it happens this year. Ria deserves a hot tub of her own.