From art teacher to trailblazer: Jen Pawol's long road to becoming MLB's first female umpire

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3 days ago

Baseball was always on television at the Long Island home where Jen Pawol grew up with her parents, Victoria and Jim.
From a young age, the now 48-year-old knew that the sport was destined to be her future. 'I love being on the field the whole time,' Pawol said. 'It's in my DNA.'
When she was seven, her mom and dad took her to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. A few decades later, it was a full-circle moment when Pawol returned to donate her own gear to celebrate the history of women in baseball.
After rising through the ranks, umpiring the lower minor leagues all the way to Triple A, Pawol is set to make history this weekend as the first female umpire in Major League Baseball history when she works the bases at the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves games.
Everything Pawol ever worked for has been building up to this moment.
'Catching and playing multiple sports throughout my career, catching a little bit on the side and things like that, all of that has culminated to help me be ready to be an umpire,' she told MLB.com last year.
'Once I started umpiring, I said, 'This is for me.' I can't explain it.'
Pawol 'begged' her parents to let her play baseball as a child, but girls played softball at the time, which is what she did, according to a 2023 profile in The Athletic.
At the age of 13, Pawol's mother Victoria died suddenly from an aneurysm. Her mom's untimely death solidified the bond with her dad, Jim. They pulled one another through and remain close today. 'We just pressed on,' Pawol told the outlet. 'We got super close and still are.'
Pawol attended West Milford High School in New Jersey, where she was an all-state softball and soccer player for three seasons in each sport.
From there, she went to Hofstra on a softball scholarship, where she had a successful college softball career as a catcher. She became a three-time all-conference pick and was on the USA Baseball women's national baseball team in 2001.
Alongside sport, Pawol worked as an art teacher and got a masters degree in painting from Hunter College in New York.
But it wasn't enough. 'I wasn't really satisfied,' she said last year. '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.'
During her studies on weekends Pawol umpired fastpitch softball to help fund her tuition. She continued to teach art in upstate New York and umpired on the side.
After umpiring National Collegiate Athletic Association softball from 2010 to 2016 she attended an MLB umpire tryout camp in 2015.
'You know I'm a woman, right?' Pawol told longtime MLB umpire Ted Barrett, who was among the instructors and was impressed with what he saw, according to The Athletic.
Pawol was invited to the Umpire Training Academy at Vero Beach, Florida and was offered a job in the Gulf Coast League—one of the lower minor leagues— in 2016. It was where she made her debut as the first woman to umpire a Minor League Baseball game in almost a decade.
The culture of the game has changed significantly, but Pawol said she was well aware of the additional scrutiny on her at the time, as she stepped up to the professional ranks.
'I can control my hustle, my calls, my professionalism. But gender and color and things like that, no one can control those,' she told MiLB.com in 2016. 'I can see why people are talking about it, asking those questions, because of the rarity of women being involved.'
Ultimately, Pawol said she hoped her achievements 'might inspire more girls and women to get involved' in the sport.
As for the men she has dealt with on the field throughout her career, Pawol didn't have a bad word to say. 'It's so much fun, and the men I've met in both Major and Minor League Baseball have been so wonderful and friendly,' she said.
In April 2023, Pawol became the first female umpire in 34 years to reach Triple A.
The significance of that day on April 30 in North Carolina struck her when St. Louis Cardinals' veteran Adam Wainwright, who made a rehab start for the Memphis Redbirds that game, approached the mound.
'Jen, I have four daughters and I think what you're doing is awesome,' Wainwright told Pawol, she recalled to The Athletic. In her no-nonsense manner, Powell replied: 'I still got to check your hands,' Pawol recalled, laughing. 'Just so you know.'
Pawol has not forgotten the women who came before her, who each played a part in making her incredible achievement possible.
Former umpires Bernice Gera and Christine Wren both shortened their first names to Bernie and Chris in a bid to force their way into the sport. Gera umpired one game in 1972 after fighting for years to do so, before she quit because of 'resentment' from other umpires and the baseball establishment. Wren umpired for three seasons in Class A from 1975 to 1977.
Pam Postema, a close friend of Pawol's, umpired in the minor leagues for 13 seasons before she became the first woman to umpire a big-league spring game in 1989. Her contract was canceled after six years at Triple A.
And Ria Cortesio, the second woman to umpire a major-league spring training game, even lowered her voice and cut her ponytail to fit in. Cortesio spent nine years in the minor leagues, including the last five in the Double-A Southern League, then was released after the 2007 season.
'The things that Pam and Ria and Chris had to deal with, they were moving the big boulders,' Pawol said.
'You don't have to change your name or pretend to be a boy. You just show up.'
The Associated Press contributed reporting.