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Amanda E. Clement (March 20, 1888 – July 20, 1971) was the first woman paid to umpire a baseball game, and may have also been the first woman to referee a high school basketball game. Clement served as an umpire on a regular basis for six years, and served occasionally for several decades afterwards. An accomplished athlete in multiple disciplines, Clement competed in baseball, basketball, track, gymnastics, and tennis, and has been attributed world records in shot put, sprinting, hurdling, and baseball. ==Early life and umpiring career== Amanda Clement was born in Hudson, South Dakota, then part of the Dakota Territory, on March 20, 1888 to Harriet Clement, one of the original settlers of Eden, South Dakota, and her husband, who died when Amanda was very young. In 1904 Clement traveled to Hawarden, Iowa to watch her brother Hank pitch in a semi-professional game. The umpire for the amateur game taking place before Hank's did not show, and Hank suggested that Amanda, who had played baseball with her brothers and was knowledgeable about the game, serve as the umpire. In so doing, Clement became the first woman paid to umpire a baseball game. Her performance was so well received that she was hired to umpire further semi-professional games.〔〔Sources differ on the year in which Clement umpired her first game. The ''Schenectady Gazette'' obituary of Clements places it in 1903, the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame and the National Baseball Hall of Fame place it in 1904, and ''Sports Illustrated'' places it in 1905. Clements would have been either 15, 16, or 17 at the time.〕 Clement's umpiring career lasted six years, during which she officiated games in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska. Unlike in modern games, during Clement's time games only had one umpire, who stood behind the pitcher and was responsible for calling strikes and balls, whether balls were fair or foul, and whether runners reached bases safely. Despite the danger umpires faced during this era Clement was treated respectfully by both players and fans, and became respected for her serious style and because she was insusceptible to bribery. Her popularity was so high that baseball marketers emphasized her officiating of games to bring in crowds.〔〔〔〔 In 1906 Clement wrote an editorial for the ''Cincinnati Enquirer'' arguing that women made better umpires than men because men would not speak abusively towards female umpires. She would repeat this idea in interviews with other newspapers.〔 Clement, a Congregationalist, refused to umpire on Sundays and stayed in the homes of clergymen while umpiring on the road.〔 Clement earned between $15 to $25 per game, which she used to fund her college education, attending Yankton College for two years followed by two years at University of Nebraska. While at Yankton, she refereed high school basketball games, possibly the first woman to do so, captained the college's women's basketball team, ran track, was a gymnast, and was by her own approximation the state's best tennis player.〔 A number of additional accomplishments in sports have been attributed to Clement, but cannot be confirmed because of poor record keeping at the time. These claims include winning tennis championships in Iowa and South Dakota and setting world records in shot put, sprinting, hurdling, and baseball, where it is claimed that Clement threw a baseball 275 feet.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Amanda Clement」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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