There is one less woman in professional baseball.

Although I love the sport of baseball, one of its dirty little not-so-secrets is the sexism. I tolerate this because I love the game so much, but it is sometimes quite hard to stomach. There are some very talented women holding a variety of positions in the game of baseball, but too few, and rarely at the levels they deserve.

This is not surprising when one hears comments like the one Cubs manager Lou Piniella made to a New York Times reporter earlier this year in this exchange:

Q (reporter): On the other hand, it might be nice if baseball moved into the future by including more women in its ranks. Do you think a woman could be a good manager?

A (Piniella): If she had a good bench coach, why not? I would think she would need a good hardened professional baseball guy that would help her with the x’s and o’s during the ballgame. Someone who knew the intricacies in and out of the game.

And he was serious.

So I was saddened to learn tonight via the ever-informative Bleed Cubbie Blue that Ria Cortesio, pro baseball's only female umpire, was let go this week. Her dismissal is especially startling given the status she had attained:

Cortesio started this season as the top-ranked umpire in all of Double-A. If there had been an opening in Triple-A, it would've been hers.

There were no vacancies and when the new ratings by minor league supervisors came out in mid-season, her ranking substantially dropped. So, too, did her chance of getting a promotion and possibly making it to the majors someday.

A move up would have greatly changed her status - umpires in Triple-A are under the auspices of major league supervisors.

"I don't know if they wanted to make a call on me in the majors," she said.

Cortesio umpired a spring training game between the Cubs and the Diamondbacks this year. I wish I had seen that in person, as it may be a long time before another woman has that opportunity. I hope MLB proves me wrong.

Excuse me while I grab a bucket.

At the ceremony where he received a key to the City of San Francisco, Barry Bonds said:

"Love was giving me that strength," Bonds said. "You the fans, the city of San Francisco -- that is why I'm the player I am today."

Please.

Sorry, I forgot to tell you.

In addition to fulfilling the duties of my full-time job and my civil rights volunteer work, this week I am very busy with a second job of attending Chicago Cubs baseball games. Yes, the Cubs are playing in Dallas, for the first time ever!

And I have had a glimpse of what my life would be like if I lived in Chicago and attended a Cubs game each and every day they were in town. Except that in Chicago I could take public transportation to the very handy ballpark, while in Dallas, I have to allow at least an hour to travel to the game via a soul-sucking, packed and slow highway.

My dinner for two nights running has consisted of a hot dog and peanuts. So far, the Cubs have won one game and lost the other, and I witnessed history last night when Sammy Sosa hit his 600th home run.

The third and final game is this afternoon. I have a million and two pictures to post for you, of the Cubs and Seattle and even going back to my May trip to New York. Soon, my friends, soon!

This is an example of the things that make me love baseball . . .

a story from last night's rain-suspended game between the Cubs and the Pirates. Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune writes about this exchange between Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly and Cubs manager Lou Piniella:

The Lilly-Piniella incident was one for the books. Lilly had slipped on a bunt attempt for the second time when Piniella gave him some unsolicited advice.

"I suggested to him, almost like football, 'You better change your spikes,'" Piniella said. "Then I went out there and he said, 'Skip, your zipper is down.' "

A quick check by Piniella revealed Lilly was correct.

"How he noticed that, I don't know," Piniella said with a laugh. "Oh, Lord."

Lilly was surprised Piniella was so forthcoming.

"Did he tell you guys?" Lilly said. "I was just trying to help him out. I thought he might be on national television."

Silly? Yes. In what other sport will you find this in a post-game story?

It is a sad day in the baseball family . . .

because last night, Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock, who was only 29 years old, died in a car wreck. He pitched in yesterday's Cardinals loss to the Cubs in St. Louis and the teams were scheduled to play again tonight.



It is always tragic to lose someone so young, but this loss hits even harder because it reminds the teams and their fan families of that terrible day almost five years ago when Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile died of a heart attack in his Chicago hotel room just before a game between the Cubs and Cardinals. The Cardinals learned of Kile's death just before the game, having sent someone to check on him in his hotel room when he did not arrive at the ballpark at his usual time.

Eerily, something similar happened just a few days ago, when Hancock was late to the park for the Cardinals' game, leading to many frantic calls by his teammates. As this story reflects:

Hancock admitted he had overslept on his new comfortable bed, and thinking the game was starting later than it was (12:10 p.m.), didn't get up until the "20th call" he received from anxious teammates.

With righthander Darryl Kile dying before a game in Chicago five years ago, the Cardinals don't take it lightly when a player doesn't show up at the park on time.

Reliever Jason Isringhausen, the only pitcher still on the club who played with Kile here, said, "(Hancock's) phone always shuts off. Everybody was trying to reach him. That's why it's so different here because of what happened with Darryl. So everybody worries. That's got more to do with it than oversleeping.

"We were all a little nervous. We don't care if you're late. That happens. We want to know that you're OK."

On the day of Kile's death, Cubs catcher Joe Girardi announced to a packed Wrigley Field crowd that the game would not be played that day due to a "death in the Cardinals family." Similarly, tonight's Cards/Cubs game will be postponed and played at a different time.

Here is a good thing to know about Josh Hancock:

He was the only [Cardinals] player to attend the premiere of a DVD documenting the Cardinals' unlikely run to their 10th World Series championship after winning only 83 regular-season games.

Our thoughts are not on baseball today, but on the reminder, yet again, that as much as we love baseball, there are things even more precious.

A smattering of thoughts from yesterday, some retrieved from my Moleskine . . .

My seatmates (on the flight to Chicago) are two of the nicest ladies I have ever met . . . both are headed to Michigan.

The good thing about a 7am flight is that it goes quickly when one sleeps the whole time.

The drive from O'Hare to downtown goes quickly as well, when one works the whole time.

I love my hotel . . . it is small, in an old and beautifully restored building. [Later, upon checking in . . . ] and the room is like a lovely little jewel box, with a small, but stunning, view of Lake Michigan.

Riding the "L" to Wrigley Field, I realize that a Cubs fan's version of hell is being surrounded by Cardinals fans on a small train car, with all of them seeking to one-up each other with Cardinals history and trivia.

The ushers at Wrigley Field are like an entire team of sweet and welcoming grandparents.

It takes an interesting older lady to create a Cubs hat with a fake dead red bird (legs up) on top of it.

Mixing romance (or anything resembling it) with baseball is a bad idea.

The new young Cubs fans arrive late, block one's view of Ryan Theriot scoring what would be the Cubs' only run of the game, stare at their cell phones for several minutes upon arrival, call someone to say, "I'm at the Cubs game!" and then take several pictures of each other and the field before finally settling in to see what is happening on the field.

I will never understand how Albert Pujols is such a good hitter (except for this season, so far) despite his incredibly awkward batting stance.

Who is the person in the dugout who throws Derek Lee the next inning's toss-around ball each time he comes off the field?

I like having Ted Lilly on the Cubs . . . there is something solid and reassuring about him. Maybe it's because his name is actually Theodore Roosevelt Lilly.

Time for the soothing panacea that is baseball

I worked late last night and then stayed up all night (what was left of it, anyway) so as not to miss my 7:00 a.m. flight this morning. And now I am posting this from Chicago, where sadly, I am not yet able to check into my hotel (though the delightfulness of the front desk staff makes up for that). The one piece of work I had to do this morning has been completed, so I'm stashing my bags and heading to the ballpark.

Not just any ballpark, of course: Wrigley Field. While Wrigley is always a beautiful place to be, there is something extra special about my first visit there in each baseball season. This is my version of a cathedral, I guess. The place will be even more energized than usual today, as the HATED ST. LOUIS CARDINALS ARE IN TOWN. (Take that, Jay!) Wish my team luck . . . and if you see a girl with a massive Nikon camera obsessively taking pictures, that may very well be me!