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“I don’t expect people to understand it, but I expect them to respect it.”

#jen ramos #sonoma stompers #non-binary representation #this is so so exciting go jen!

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Last week, the Sonoma Stompers announced that Jen Ramos, a baseball writer and data journalist from Northern California, would be the team’s new assistant general manager. Normally, a hire from an independent baseball club in the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Club league wouldn’t be national news. But this hire is notable because Ramos is non-binary, which means Ramos doesn’t identify as a man or a woman. Ramos may be the first genderqueer executive in professional sports. Baseball isn’t usually viewed as a particularly progressive sport, but the Stompers — who were the subject of the 2016 New York Times bestseller The Only Rule is It Has to Work — have a history of bucking the norm. Two years ago, the club signed pitcher Sean Conroy, who became the first openly gay active professional baseball player. And last year, the team became the first coed professional baseball team in the United States since the 1950s when they signed three female players to the team. As an experienced data analyst and prospect evaluator with a Master’s of Science in Journalism from the University of Southern California and digital media experience with the NHL’s San Jose Sharks, Ramos is a perfect fit for a job with duties spanning from talent evaluation to business operations to public relations. Ramos — who prefers they/their pronouns, though they were okay with the Stompers using she/her pronouns in the press release—is embracing being a trailblazer, and hopes to be an inspiration for others who are struggling with their gender identity. But ultimately, they’re just excited to have the opportunity to work in a baseball front office. They spoke with ThinkProgress about their journey in sports, why its important for them to be open about their gender identity, and their goals moving forward…

As mentioned earlier when the news about Sean Conroy came out, so to speak, the PABC is a four-team loop formed from the remains of the North American Baseball League, which operated from 2010 to 2012 and once stretched from Hilo and Wailuku in Hawai'i to Edmonton and Calgary in Alberta down south to Edinburg, Texas and east to Zion, Illinois. The NABL itself was formed from teams leftover from several defunct independent baseball leagues, which are pro minor leagues not affiliated with Organized Baseball. Sonoma County itself has hosted several pro baseball teams since the 1980s. Ramos graduated from Oakland’s Mills College (I have the shirt!), the West Coast’s biggest women’s college, whose alumni include Erin “Grishno” Armstrong and Mia Satya.