First woman MLB umpire to take the field in Atlanta this weekend
Aug. 6 (UPI) -- One of the umpires in the Marlins-Braves series this weekend will be the first woman to umpire in a Major League Baseball game.
Jen Pawol, a New Jersey native, will join the umpire team in Atlanta, where she'll work three games. On Sunday, she'll be behind home plate. She is one of 17 Triple-A umpires eligible to substitute in Major League games.
"Anybody in baseball will tell you that you've just got to keep it simple, keep working hard, put your all into it and get ready for the next day," Pawol, 48, said in 2024. "That's all I think about every day -- get better before tomorrow."
She has climbed the umpire ranks since starting her pro career in 2016. She reached Triple-A in 2023 and was the first woman to reach that level in 34 years. She umped behind home plate for the Triple-A Championship that year. In 2024, Pawol became the first woman umpire in a Spring Training game since Ria Cortesio in 2007. She was a Triple-A crew chief in 2024 and worked more Spring Training games in 2025.
"For me, personally, I just love doing the job," Pawol said in 2016. "I'm passionate about it, and it's just part of who I am."
She played softball at Hofstra University and at the Amateur Softball Association Major Fast Pitch level for 10 years before switching to umpiring. The former catcher umpired in the Big Ten Conference from 2013 to 2015.
She went to the 2016 Minor League Baseball Umpire Training Academy in Vero Beach, Fla., and got her first assignment in the Gulf Coast League (now known as the Florida Complex League). Pawol was the seventh woman umpire in Minor League Baseball history.
Before becoming a full-time umpire, she was an art teacher.
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