The Josh Innes Show - Lady Umpire Breaks Barriers

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

I love this story. To me, the idea of "breaking barriers" indicates that someone did something many people have been forcefully kept from doing. Like, how many ladies are clamoring to be baseball umpires. Also, I find the "She's Just A DEI Hire!!" weirdos to be annoying as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, friends, welcome in. I think the most pointless story over the last couple of weeks, or the story that's trying to be important and profound, that just isn't important and profound, is the story of the lady umpire. Gin Powell is her name. I love reading headlines like this, right? Female umpire, Jen Powell takes field and breaks MLB barrier. quote, I'm just so thankful. The thing is, when you talk about somebody breaking a barrier, I feel as though you associate that with a barrier that's keeping a large number of people out, right?

Usually when we hear breaking blank barrier, we usually hear that about Jackie Robinson. And Jackie Robinson, for those of you who are uninitiated, Jackie Robinson was the first black major league baseball player, right? and he's the guy that, quote, broke the color barrier. When we hear the word barrier and breaking of barriers used in a sports context, generally speaking, it refers to Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier. Now, that is a significant moment in history. Why is that a significant moment in history? Well, it's a significant moment in history because I imagine there were many, many, many black baseball players

and probably Hispanic baseball players as well that wanted the opportunity. to play in the major leagues. They coveted the opportunity to play in the major leagues. This was important to them. A large number of them were, hey, we're hanging out in the Negro leagues, and that's fine, and we make a little money doing that. We play in front of a bunch of people, but we don't get to stay in the same hotels as white people. We don't get to eat at the same restaurants as white people. We don't get to bang the same dames as the white people, at least the people knew of. So we'd love the opportunity to break the color barrier so we can also get into Major League Baseball. A large number of them wanted to get into Major League Baseball.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and I am going to guess that there aren't too many ladies out there that looked at this as some sort of important moment in the history of sport or some sort of groundbreaking moment for them as females to see The Lady Umpire. So when you read a headline like, Jen Powell takes field, breaks MLB barrier, like, did she really break a barrier? Like a barrier is also an indicator that people were deliberately keeping women out. Like there was like a rule. And I don't know that there was a rule that said ladies can't be umpires. They just weren't umpires. But I don't think that there was a barrier set up that said, no women can umpire. Maybe I'm wrong on this. I don't think that was the case. Let me play a few

commercials. And we will continue. Yeah, I don't, I'm really, I'm really, Reading this story from Atlanta, before the first pitch was thrown Saturday and before Jen Powell became the first female umpire to work a regular season game in Major League history, the importance of the moment it already was apparent, not just for Powell, but for baseball and so many of its fans. I don't think any, please, find me these fans who thought it was a big deal. Nobody would have even known or cared had baseball not made a big deal of it, had it not become a big story, that there was a lady umpire. She realized that when her name was announced and she got an ovation at Truest Park similar to what favorite players

from the Atlanta Braves received rather than the indifference normally accorded umpire introductions. Well, they gave you all this applause out of pity. That is DEI applause. Now, I want to be very clear. I see a lot of people, right-wing people, Clay Travis listener type people that are like, this is the definition of a DEI hire. Well, a DEI hire would indicate that somebody is not qualified to do a job, and they only have the job because of diversity, equity, and inclusion, because the color of their skin, or whether or not they have a penis or a vagina or how they, what their pronouns they put in their Twitter bio, right? I don't believe that that's what this is.

I'm sure, like, you're an umpire. Women can umpire just like men can umpire. This is not a scenario where, like, oh, by the way, now we have lady kicker at Vanderbilt. Like lady kicker at Vanderbilt felt like a DEI situation where they were trying to force a moment. But that's a sport where women should not be playing tackle football with men. It is actually barbaric for women to play tackle football with men, right? So, like, that's a different situation. That is DEI.

A lady can be an umpire. A lady can stand behind the plate and call balls and strikes. I don't think she has inferior lady eyeballs that keep her from calling balls and strikes. she's fine. If there can be lady football refs where you have to run and keep up with a world-class athletes, I'm pretty sure that a lady around all the other fat, frumpy umpires in baseball can survive. So, like, this notion that this is a DEI thing is stupid because DEI indicates she's

not qualified to do it. And if you saw how badly she missed the first pitch, if you believe the pitch box, which I never do. That's one of my big points of contention is people watch this pitch box like it's set in stone, like it's ordained by God, and I don't believe that. I think it's off sometimes, right? But the first pitch appeared to be way the fucking side, and it's like, see, that's why ladies can't umpire.

Basically, it just shows that ladies can be a shitty of umpires as men. That's all it shows, right? Like, ladies suck it umpire, I mean, it's sucking umpire. But the idea that this is DEI shit. Now, the fact that it's a story is DEI shit. like the fact that you know it's it's headline news that a lady is umpiring is preposterous who gives a shit now if a lady went out and bopped a home run in a major league baseball game that's a story if a lady struck out 10 dudes that's a story if a lady was a closer for the

pirates that's a story a lady being an umpire isn't a story because nobody was of the belief that a woman couldn't be an umpire shouldn't be an umpire and i bet most people didn't know that there weren't already lady umpires so the idea that like the crowd at this park was like giving her a standing ovation like she's one of their favorite players that they're doing that because they're just trying to be part of a moment no one on the planet gives a shit if a woman is an umpire or not no one gives a shit no one's life is different nothing than sport has changed this is not breaking any barrier no one gives a shit other than that kid that was in the stands that drew of a lot of people on social media, the kid in the umpire outfit during the Cardinals Cubs game

that was like calling balls and strikes and his dream is to be an umpire, which is a weird dream, but rock on kid. Kids have different dreams. Hey, you actually kind of got to, you got to admire, and I don't know if you guys saw that kid, but he was all over TV, full on Major League Baseball umpire outfit. He's like 12 years old or something, and he's doing the balls and the strikes and taking off his mask trying to be like the home plate umpire. And he's getting ripped by some dipshits on the internet. And there was one guy that I did think the line was funny, which was, you know, if this were my kid, I know I failed as a dad.

And I laughed at that, but then it all just became really mean-spirited. And you know what? If a kid's dream is to be an umpire and he realizes that, hey, I'm not going to be good enough to be a baseball player, let the kid fucking dream. Like seeing people shit on this kid, I'm like, oh, fuck yourselves, you dopes. Look, maybe this, like, we should admire kids who understand their role in life and understand that they're not. Maybe it's not their lot in life to be a short stop for the Braves. Maybe they just realize that, hey, if they want to get to the show, put on a mask and a chest protector and go call balls and strikes.

Now, what I would tell that kid is you're in danger of going into a profession where your profession is endangered. It's like going into radio. You go into radio, and there's a very good possibility that there's a short shelf life because radio is not for people who would like to have longevity, because radio is probably not going to be around in 10 years, right? And the money isn't there anymore, so you're taking a big risk. I would tell him that as well.

In the era of robot umpires, you might find yourself in kind of a tough spot, pal, so just maybe you want to go into a different line of work. But I digress. Back to Lady umpire. The idea that we're sitting here seeing something historic is dumb, and the idea that this is something that's DEI is also dumb. It's possible for multiple things to be dumb. It's also possible that something that's completely overblown because it makes positive news, but that doesn't make it a DEI thing.

I'm sure this lady is a fine umpire. She missed the first pitch of the game and maybe she missed some others. I didn't see the full report on how good or how bad she was. My guess is she was right on par with the rest of them. But the idea that this was some special historical moment and the fact that all these headlines are using words like, breaking barriers. we're breaking barriers in baseball with the lady umpire again to break a barrier a barrier a barrier to me is something that is set up to keep a large number of people from achieving something color barrier there there and that means a lot of people want to do it there are not a lot of people that are out there going oh my god please get me in i need to be a lady umpire no one gives a shit but it's just funny to watch people react to this like There are some people that everything just makes them fucking angry. There are some people who just want to yell and scream and everything's DEI and everything

is woke and like, it's just a lady fucking umpire. You want to get worked up? I got getting worked up over the lady kicker being a story, right? Because ladies should not be playing tackle football with dudes. They will die. It is science. I am telling you science now. It is anchor man, not anchor lady.

I am telling you science. And science says that ladies should. not play tackle football with men. Just given the fact that if a guy hits a lady, he's going to jail. If a woman hits a man, she's probably not going to jail. And most people go, that dude got hit by a woman. What a pussy. That alone tells you that there's science involved in this that says that women shouldn't play football.

That would be something. There was somehow a woman good enough, physical enough, strong enough to play football with men. She actually wouldn't be a woman. She'd just be a man. That would be something. Lady umpiring is not something. More to come.