Jen Pawol is set to become the first female Major League Baseball umpire in history when she steps onto the field to watch the bases during the coming Braves and Marlins game on Sunday.
The 48-year-old New Jersey native played softball and soccer for Hofstra University on Long Island, and has been an umpire for more than a decade on the amateur level, according to the New York Post.
Pawol worked as a Triple-A ump, as well, and became the first female ump in 34 years in the minors.
She was also the first female ump to officiate at a spring training game since 2007, and has been on the MLB Call-Up list before finally getting the chance to hit the majors.
“I love being on the field the whole time. It’s in my DNA,” Pawol said last year. “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. This is my 18th year — 10 in amateur and eight now in pro. It’s just sort of all coming together, and once I started umpiring, I said, ‘This is for me.’ I can’t explain it.”
Pawol also touted the career of officiating, and said, “This is a viable career becoming a professional umpire – men and women, girls and boys. I didn’t know that the first several years when I got into umpiring in amateur ball for 10 years.”
MLB now pulls in as the third U.S. pro sports league to have a female officiator, following the NBA, which debuted its first female ref 28 years ago, and the NFL, which debuted its first female ref in 2015.
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