Major League Baseball will have its first woman umpire call a regular season game.
Jen Pawol is slated to officiate the weekend series between the Marlins and Braves. Pawol will be a base umpire for Saturday’s doubleheader and behind the plate on Sunday, according to The Associated Press.
Pawol, a 48-year-old New Jersey native, played softball at Hofstra and on the USA Baseball Women’s National Team before pursuing a career as an umpire. She worked her first game in 2016 in the Gulf Coast League (now the Florida Complex League), which is the lowest level of North American minor league baseball.
MLB’s decision to promote Pawol comes nearly 30 years after women officials broke into professional sports.
Violet Palmer was the first woman referee to officiate an NBA regular season game in 1997. In 2015, Sarah Thomas became the first woman female official in NFL history after already being the first to officiate a major college football game and bowl game. The 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup featured its first woman referee, Stéphanie Frappart of France. The NHL has never had a woman referee.
MLB’s move to promote Pawol represents the first of its kind, although female referees have called MLB spring training games in the past, beginning with Pam Postema in 1988. Yet fewer than 10 women have umpired these contests; Pawol, who called spring training games in March 2024, became the first woman to do so since Ria Cortesio in 2007, who was released later that year.
“Tonight was very, very special,” Pawol said after her first spring training game. “Both managers shared congratulations, (everyone was) welcoming, enthusiastic. The players on the field, so many said congrats and great to see you up here.”
Pawol will make her debut at Truist Park in Atlanta.
