MLB will name up its first feminine umpire over the weekend, with Jen Pawol scheduled to work each video games of a doubleheader Saturday between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves.
Pawol, a 48-year-old West Milford, N.J., native, can even umpire Sunday’s sport behind house plate calling balls and strikes.
Residence plate umpire Jen Pawol takes up her place in the course of the first inning of a spring coaching baseball sport between the Houston Astros and Miami Marlins Sunday, March 10, 2024, in West Palm Seashore, Fla. (AP Picture/Jeff Roberson)
Up to now two years, Pawol has labored spring coaching video games earlier than the season. She was the primary girl to umpire these video games since Ria Cortesio in 2007, although Cortesio was by no means referred to as as much as the majors.
MLB calls up further umpires from the AAA stage for sequence that contain doubleheaders. Umpires who work behind the plate for one sport of a doubleheader get the opposite sport off.
Pawol was an all-state softball participant in New Jersey and performed collegiately at Hofstra College, the place she was a three-time all-conference choice. She was a part of the 2001 USA Baseball girls’s nationwide workforce however taking part in part-time left her wanting extra.
“I wasn’t really satisfied,” she mentioned in 2024. “Coming off of a huge competitive career, just playing locally, I wasn’t getting my fix. And I remember looking at the umpire and being like, I think that’s it. I got to go for that.”
The NBA employed its first feminine referee, Violet Palmer, in 1997, and the NFL promoted its first feminine on-field official, Sarah Thomas, in 2015. The NHL has nonetheless by no means had a feminine official.
MLB’s full-time umpiring crew is notoriously powerful to interrupt into. Umpires are functionally by no means fired for poor efficiency, although standout ump Pat Hoberg was canned earlier this yr in a playing scandal. Full-time openings normally solely happen when umpires retire.
Initially Printed: August 6, 2025 at 2:34 PM EDT
