Be honest… when you read that headline about an athletic superstar, you’re thinking baseball player, right? A male… right? But, no, this superstar is a woman!
Jen Pawol is a baseball umpire who is breaking ground in Major League Baseball. I watched her behind the plate a few days ago in a Yankees spring training game. (She called Aaron Judge out looking, and she was right!)
Now I want to see her umpire a regular season MLB game! Maybe even more than I want the Yankees to win the World Series this year. Maybe…
A standout player
Jen Pawol was born in 1977, when Title IX was beginning to provide more opportunities for female athletes. In a baseball-saturated household, she wanted to play Little League baseball. But girls still just didn’t do that. They played softball. And so did Jen.
Jen was a standout player. In New Jersey’s West Milford High School, she was an all-state star in soccer and softball. She earned a softball scholarship to Hofstra University. But in college, Jen still needed money, so she began umpiring softball games.*
Jen was on the 2021 USA Baseball Women’s National Team that won the first Baseball Women’s World Series. But still not finished with her education — and not yet sure of her career path — Pawol went to Hunter College, where she earned an MFA with a concentration in painting. (I want to see her series of paintings of the strike zone!) She continued to umpire softball games while nurturing her career in art.
Baseball’s siren song
Yet her desire to remain in the game brought Pawol to Georgia in 2015 to attend Southern Umpires Camp. She caught the eye of an MLB umpire, Ted Barrett, who invited her an MLB umpiring camp.
“You know I’m a woman, right?” she responded.**
And that was that! Jen resolved to make it in the male-dominated field of baseball umpiring. She left camp with a scholarship to the league’s umpire academy. In June 2016, Pawol made her professional umpiring debut at a minor league game in Dunedin, Florida.***
Just as baseball players move on up through the minor league farm system, Jen progressed through the ranks. In 2023, she was promoted to the AAA level. On February 24, 2024, Pawol umpired at third base for the opening spring training game between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros in West Palm Beach, Florida, She continued to work games throughout the spring.
The challenge ahead
Finally, this year, Yankees fans were treated to the sight of Jen as the home plate umpire for the Yankee-Astros spring training game this past Saturday.
In a way, she says, an umpire has a tougher job than a player.
Baseball fans now have 162 chances to see Jen umpire a game this regular season. I hope she gets the call!
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* You can make good money as an umpire. Our son was a Babe Ruth umpire while in high school, and he earned a Babe Ruth scholarship for his freshman year of college.
** Jen Pawol, American Baseball Umpire. Britannica.com. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jen-Pawol
*** Jen isn’t the first woman to umpire professional baseball. Those who went before her: Bernice Gera (1972), Christine Wren (1975–77), Pam Postema (1977–89), Theresa Cox Fairlady (1989–91), Ria Cortesio (1999–2007), Shanna Kook (2003–04). So few and far between. Also sad: Bernice and Christine shortened their names to the male-sounding Bernie and Chris on application forms, and others had to file lawsuits.
**** “Jen Pawol to make spring training debut, on verge of becoming first MLB woman umpire.” Associated Press, February 23, 2024. https://cbs12.com/sports/content/jen-pawol-to-make-big-league-spring-training-debut-on-verge-of-becoming-first-mlb-woman-umpire-big-league-washington-west-palm-beach-florida-southern-league