History was made on Saturday, Aug. 9, in Atlanta, Georgia as Jen Pawol became the first female in Major League Baseball history to work a regular season MLB game. The Associated Press reported Pawol debuted as the first base umpire for the first game of a split doubleheader between the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins.
Pawol’s first test came in the third inning, when she called Braves catcher Sean Murphy safe on a close play. On Saturday night, Pawol will work the third base line in the second game of the series. Then, she’ll be behind the plate as she calls pitches in Sunday, Aug. 10’s final game of the series.
Pawol reportedly learned of her promotion on Thursday, Aug. 7.
“It was super emotional to finally be living that phone call that I’d been hoping for and working towards for quite a while, and I just felt super full — I feel like a fully charged battery ready to go,” Pawol said.
From softball to baseball
According to Fox News, Pawol began her umpiring career calling NCAA softball games. She moved to baseball in 2016 with the Rookie ball. Working her way up through the minors, she landed in Triple-A in 2023. Pawol was the first woman to umpire in that league in 34 years.
“This has been over 1,200 minor league games, countless hours of video review trying to get better, and underneath it all has just been this passion and this love for the game of baseball,” Pawol said. “This started in my playing days as a catcher and transformed over into an umpire, and I think it’s gotten even stronger as an umpire. Umpiring is for me, it’s in my DNA. It’s been a long, hard journey.”
As a player, Pawol was honored three times as an all-conference catcher at Hofstra University. She also became a world champion with United States women’s softball in 2001.
