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Jen Paul continues to make history as a female baseball umpire.
Announced by Major League Baseball on Wednesday, Paul was called up as part of the five-team referee of the Atlanta Brave Smiami Marlins series this weekend, featuring doubleheaders on Saturday, becoming the first female referee in the regular season MLB game.
Pawol will be behind the plate for the Braves and Marlins series finale at Truist Park in Atlanta on Sunday, August 10th. She works with the crew and each of the final three games of the series.
Major League Baseball calls are quite a bit after other professional sports leagues have broken down barriers to female officials and their own referees and gender. The first full-time female official to work in professional sports games was Violet Palmer in 1997. He worked at the Dallas Maverick and the then Vancouver Grizzlies Games and became the NBA’s first female referee.
Sarah Thomas became the first female employee of the NFL in 2015 when she served as line judge for the Kansas City Chiefs’ road game with the Houston Astros. Thomas promoted history in the NFL six years later, becoming the first woman to host the Super Bowl in 2021.
Pointed out by MLB.com, Pawol began his baseball umpire career with rookie ball in 2016 and raised the minor league rank to Triple A in 2023. In the same season, Paul made history by becoming the first woman to judge the Triple A Championship Game.
Here’s what you need to know about Pawol:
Who is Jen Paul?
Pawol, 47, came from a softball background as he played softball at Hofstra University and was the three-time Colonial Athletic Association All-Conference Team selection as a Pride catcher. She was a member of the US Women’s Softball Team World Championship team in 2001.
The New Jersey native became a referee when he worked in a college softball game in 2010 and moved to baseball in 2016 when he was employed in the Gulf League after the completion of the umpire training academy.
She has MLB experience on her resume as she worked in the spring training game for the Houston Astros vs. Washington Nationals in 2024. Starting with 3 base of that game, Pawol became the first female referee in a spring training game since Ria Cortesio did that in 2007.
“We’re very grateful for everyone’s enthusiasm. Your reception on the field tonight was very special,” Pawol said after umpireing in 2024 her first MLB Spring Training Game. “Congratulations and welcomed me along with my (referee) partner player. I already knew a lot of players on the field.
Pawol, which MLB.com points out, is one of 17 current Triple-A referees who are eligible to replace a major league match if one of the MLB referees goes on vacation or something like that.
When did Jen Paul make her MLB referee debut?
Pawol is scheduled to make his MLB referee debut on Saturday in Game 1 of The Braves-Marlins Doubleheader. She will be working plates for the first time in the majors on Sunday, the series finale.
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