Max Muncy's second homer of the day (15)
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Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
Jen Pawol breaks MLB's gender barrier as the first female umpire to work a regular-season game
ATLANTA (AP) — Jen Pawol has made history as the first female umpire to work a regular-season game in the major leagues. Pawol's much-anticipated debut came as the first base umpire for Saturday's first game of a split doubleheader between the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins. She enjoyed a quiet first inning, watching as Braves right-hander Hurston Waldrep struck out the first two batters before Agustin Ramirez lined out to third baseman Nacho Alvarez. The Braves also were set down in order by Miami right-hander Ryan Gusto in the bottom of the first inning, with no calls from Pawol needed at first base. As the first base umpire, Pawol's responsibility was to check Waldrep's hands for foreign substances following the inning. During that brief encounter she also appeared to receive a warm greeting from Braves catcher Sean Murphy on his way to the dugout. Pawol will work third base in Saturday night's second game of the doubleheader. She will be in the spotlight when she calls pitches behind the plate in Sunday's final game of the series. There was much anticipation for her historic debut on Saturday. A crowd of photographers gathered while waiting for the umpires to walk onto the field from their entry ramp near the Marlins dugout. Marlins manager Clayton McCullough and Braves bench coach Walt Weiss greeted Pawol when lineups were exchanged at home plate before the game. Pawol then jogged down the first base line. She shook hands with Marlins first base coach Tyler Smarslok before taking her position on the right field line for the first pitch. Pawol said Thursday she was 'overcome with emotion' when notified she would make her Major League Baseball debut this weekend. '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. Pawol, 48, has been working in the minor leagues since she was assigned to the Gulf Coast League in 2016. She was assigned the Triple-A championship game in 2023 and worked spring training games in 2024 and again this year. Pawol, who is from New Jersey, had only a few days to prepare for Saturday's doubleheader. She said she was told of her long-awaited promotion during a Wednesday conference call with director of umpire development Rich Rieker and vice president of umpire operations Matt McKendry. Pawol was a three-time all-conference softball selection pick at Hofstra. She worked as an NCAA softball umpire from 2010-16. Pawol's rise to make MLB history came 28 years after the NBA gender barrier for game officials was broken and 10 years after the NFL hired its first full-time female official. The men's soccer World Cup first hired a female referee three years ago. The NHL has not had any women as on-ice officials. ___ AP MLB:
CBS News
3 minutes ago
- CBS News
Boston soccer player grows as a leader as she coaches the next generation of athletes
A high school soccer player from Boston is spending her summer as a coach to the next generation of athletes through Soccer Unity Project, which teaches much more than just how to score a goal. Bryie Woods, a senior at Cristo Rey High School, said stepping on the soccer field helped her find her voice. "I started playing just to, like, get outside, just get active, I feel like I found people that have the same passion as me, that I get to bond over with them," said Woods. "When I'm on the field and especially during a game and I get the ball, I feel like I'm performing. Like I feel like I'm onstage performing, like I feel like I have to do my absolute best." "It's amazing when you put people into positions that they can sort of find things within them they didn't know they had," said Caroline Foscato, the president and founder of Soccer Unity Project. Woods is working with the Soccer Unity Project to help train young athletes on the field. Foscato said she's seen her grow. "She is a brilliant, amazing young woman that is not the loudest in the room. Is not the first to shout out," said Foscato. "But she has been developing over the summer these skills of, like, through her coaching the kids and it's just been really amazing to watch her leadership develop. "I've seen her patience grow a lot more and the way she talks to the kids, she understands how to talk to them, like coming to eye level and all that stuff.," said teammate Jazelle Ortega. She met Woods on the soccer field at school. "Me and her both play defense together, so we have a lot of chemistry," said Ortega. "She's a very hard worker and she is a little bit quiet but once you get to know her, she's very outgoing." Woods said growing up in Dorchester in a home with her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, who recently passed, helped shape her into the person she is today. "With four generations of women, I feel like I was just taught to stand strong by myself, whether I have people behind me or not," said Woods. Woods also attended the Youth Leaders Summit in Pennsylvania this year. "There's a lot of different ways to be a leader, there's no set rules to be a leader," said Woods. "Being a leader is to be empathetic, like to truly see people for what they're going through and take them as they are." "It can be the person that's supportive, it can be the person that's encouraging and nourishing," said Foscato. "And she's one of those people. She really is, you see it the way she interacts with the other teens." And Woods, who's also taking several honors classes at school, loves being out on the field with the younger players. "Seeing them get more excited to come every week is a great feeling. And seeing them get the enrichment that I didn't get to have when I was younger, I wish I started playing earlier," said Woods. "So seeing them get to start at such an early age is fulfilling." Woods said she hopes to attend college next year to become a dermatologist.
New York Times
3 minutes ago
- New York Times
Don Elbaum, Audacious Boxing Promoter and Heavyweight Raconteur, Dies at 94
Don Elbaum, a swashbuckling boxing figure who promoted Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali, along with less notable pugilists who fought for their dreams in smoky Holiday Inn ballrooms and dingy American Legion halls, died on July 27 in Erie, Pa. He was 94. His death, in a hospice facility, was confirmed by his son Kipp. Compared during his eight-decade career to P.T. Barnum, Don Quixote and a Damon Runyon character, Mr. Elbaum juked and sometimes jabbed his way to prominence in a sport whose outside-the-ring personalities become mythical figures and occasionally prison inmates — for four months, in Mr. Elbaum's case, on tax evasion charges. 'Don was a scoundrel, but he was a talented scoundrel and a colorful scoundrel — a well-intentioned scoundrel,' Lou DiBella, a boxing manager and former head of programming for HBO Sports, said in an interview. 'He told the most wonderful, incredible, remarkable stories, and a decent percentage of them were true.' Mr. Elbaum once staged a bout to decide the 'World's Worst Boxer,' matching two combatants who had never won a fight. Squaring off at a packed Elks Club in Ohio, the fighters had agreed that the loser would retire. The contest ended in a draw, naturally. In 1965, he hyped a Robinson fight in Johnstown, Pa., as 'The Biggest Event Since the Johnstown Flood,' a catastrophe that killed 2, 209 people in 1889. Hoping to generate headlines at a news conference before the bout, Mr. Elbaum surprised Robinson with the gloves the fighter had worn in his first match. Putting them on, Robinson discovered that both gloves were right-handed. Robinson, it turned out, did not have two right hands; the gloves were spares that Mr. Elbaum kept in his trunk. Robinson realized what was happening and told the reporters he couldn't bring himself to put them on. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
