Jen Pawol makes history as MLB's first female umpire. Here's what to know.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with new information
Jen Pawol continues to make history as a female baseball umpire.
Announced on Wednesday by Major League Baseball, Pawol is getting called up to be part of the five-team umpire crew for this weekend's Atlanta Braves-Miami Marlins series, which features a doubleheader on Saturday, making her the first female umpire to work a regular-season MLB game.
Pawol is scheduled to be behind the plate for the Braves and Marlins series finale on Sunday, Aug. 10 at Truist Park in Atlanta. She will be working each of the final three games of the series with the crew, which needed a fifth member for the weekend due to the doubleheader.
The call-up by Major League Baseball comes well after other professional sports leagues broke down the gender barrier with female officials and referees of their own. The first full-time female official to work a professional sports game was Violet Palmer in 1997, who worked the Dallas Mavericks vs. then-Vancouver Grizzlies game to become the NBA's first woman referee.
Sarah Thomas then became the NFL's first woman on-field official in 2015 when she served as a line judge for the Kansas City Chiefs' road game at the Houston Astros. Thomas furthered her history in the NFL six years later in 2021 when she became the first female to officiate a Super Bowl.
Noted by MLB.com, Pawol began her baseball umpire career in 2016 in Rookie ball and climbed all the way up the minor league ranks to Triple-A in 2023, where she was the first woman to umpire at the minor league's highest level in 34 years. That same season, Pawol made history by becoming the first woman to umpire a Triple-A championship game.
Here's what to know about Pawol:
Who is Jen Pawol?
Pawol, who is 47 years old, comes from a softball background as she played softball at Hofstra University and was a three-time Colonial Athletic Association All-Conference team selection as the Pride's catcher. She was a member of the U.S. Women's softball team's world championship team in 2001.
The New Jersey native first became an umpire in 2010 when she worked college softball games, and then shifted to baseball in 2016 when she was hired for a job in the Gulf Coast League following the completion of the Umpire Training Academy.
She does have some MLB experience on her resume, as she worked a Houston Astros vs. Washington Nationals spring training game in 2024. Starting at third base for that game, Pawol became the first female umpire to work a spring training game since Ria Cortesio did so back in 2007.
"I greatly appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm, everyone’s welcoming attitude on the field tonight was very, very special," Pawol said in 2024 after umpiring her first MLB spring training game. "Both managers shared congratulations and were welcoming, along with my (umpiring) partners, the players. I knew a lot of the players on the field already and so many said 'Congrats, great to see you up here.'"
Noted by MLB.com, Pawol is one of 17 current Triple-A umpires who are eligible to serve as a substitute in Major League games, should one of MLB's umpires go on vacation or something like that.
When is Jen Pawol making her MLB umpire debut?
Pawol is set to make her MLB umpiring debut on Saturday in Game 1 of the Braves-Marlins doubleheader. She is set to then work the plate for the first time in the majors on Sunday for the series finale.
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