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Appendix C Sample Items Grade 4 -- Reading for Information
It was a hot Sunday afternoon in Hawarden, a small town in western Iowa. Amanda Clement was sixteen years old. She sat quietly in the grandstand with her mother, but she imagined herself right out there on the baseball diamond with the players. Back home in Hudson, South Dakota, her brother Hank and his friends often asked her to umpire games. Sometimes she was even allowed to play first base. Today, Mandy, as she was called, could only sit and watch Hank pitch for Renville against Hawarden. The year was 1904, and girls were not supposed to participate in sports, But when the umpire for the preliminary game between two local teams didn't arrive, Hank asked Mandy to make the calls. Mrs. Clement didn't want her daughter to umpire a public event, but at last Hank and Mandy persuaded her to give her consent. Mandy eagerly took her position behind the pitcher's mound. Because only one umpire was used in those days, she had to call plays on the four bases as well as strikes and balls. Mandy was five feet ten inches tall and looked very impressive as she accurately called the plays. She did so well that the players for the big game asked her to umpire for them -- with pay! Mrs. Clement was shocked at that idea. But Mandy finally persuaded her mother to allow her to do it. Amanda Clement became the first paid woman baseball umpire on record. Mandy's fame spread quickly. Before long, she was umpiring games in North and South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Flyers sent out to announce upcoming games called Mandy the "World Champion Woman Umpire." Her uniform was a long blue skirt, a black necktie, and a white blouse with UMPS stenciled across the front. Mandy kept her long dark hair tucked inside a peaked cap. She commanded respect and attention -- players never said, "Kill the umpire!" They argued more politely, asking, "Beg your pardon, Miss Umpire, but wasn't that one a bit high?" Mandy is recognized in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York; the Women's Sports Hall of Fame; and the Women's Sports Foundation in San Francisco, California. In 1912 she held the world record for a woman throwing a baseball: 279 feet. Mandy's earnings for her work as an umpire came in especially handy. She put herself through college and became a teacher and coach, organizing teams and encouraging athletes wherever she lived. Mandy died in 1971. People who knew her remember her for her work as an umpire, teacher, and coach, and because she loved helping people as much as she loved sports.
"Amanda Clement: The Umpire in a Skirt," by Marilyn Kratz. Copyright 1987 by Marilyn Kratz. Copyright 1987 by Cars Corporation. Reprinted with permission.
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