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Ria Cortesio is a former American baseball umpire, working games at the Double A level. On March 29, 2007, she became the first woman since Pam Postema in 1989 to work a Major league exhibition game, serving alternately as the first and third base umpire in a spring training game between the Chicago Cubs and Arizona Diamondbacks. The 2007 season was her ninth and final professional season and fifth at the Double A level. After being denied promotion for many years, she was released by Minor League Baseball on October 30, 2007. Author Bruce Weber and umpire Kate Sargeant claim that Ria was denied promotion due to sexism, possibly with her male colleagues colluding against her. Cortesio, of Italian and Greek descent, was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1976 and attended Rice University in Houston, Texas.
