Jen Pawol Made MLB History, Now Give Her More Games

The debut over the weekend of umpire Jen Pawol proved a few things — not the least of which was this: She deserves more opportunities to work as an ump in Major League Baseball.

Becoming the first woman to umpire an MLB game, Pawol worked the final two games of the Miami Marlins–Atlanta Braves series, including an assignment behind the plate Sunday afternoon calling balls and strikes.

How did she perform in her first game behind the plate? The independent Umpire Scorecard account on X, formerly Twitter, rated Pawol at 93% accuracy on balls and strikes — about 1.4% below expected accuracy. Whatever mistakes Pawol was said to make did not appear to affect the outcome of the Braves’ 7-1 victory. Hey, umpires are supposed to be like doctors, after all: First, do no harm.

Pawol’s performance calling balls and strikes wasn’t as good as the top umpires of the day, according to Ump Scorecard, but it also wasn’t the worst — and it was about as good as several others. Good enough to get the job done while, undoubtedly, making both dugouts unhappy from time to time. Yeah, she sounds like a major league umpire all right.

In respect to being less discriminatory, MLB lags behind other pro sports leagues in hiring women to officiate. Sarah Thomas has officiated in the NFL full-time since 2015. Violet Palmer, and later Dee Kantner, broke the barrier for women in the NBA in 1997. No matter, it remains up to MLB when Pawol will get another opportunity. This assignment was temporary; she was covering for another ump who was on vacation.

Now that she’s made history at age 48, Pawol is returning to Triple-A, where she has worked for 2½ seasons. Her career in the minors began in 2016. Only eight women currently umpire in the minors. That’s likely to start changing soon because of Pawol.

Other female umpires have attempted to reach the majors since 1972, when Bernice Gera reportedly became the first to get a job in the minors after a five-year court fight. But she quit after one game when, it was said, the rest of her crew made it clear she wasn’t welcome.

Pam Postema famously got close to the majors in the late 1980s, when she umpired in MLB spring training. Postema umpired in the minors for 13 years, but was fired in 1989 after MLB Commissioner Bart Giamatti, a key ally, died in office. Postema settled out of court in 1997 after filing a discrimination suit.

Postema reportedly watched Pawol’s debut with pride. So did fellow ump Chris Guccione, who saw it up close. A member of Pawol’s crew, Guccione has been an advocate on her behalf, saying he’s never been prouder as an umpire than he was of his colleague making it to the majors.

But her achievement won’t mean as much if this is it. MLB had Black players decades before Jackie Robinson, but they didn’t stick because the league didn’t care enough.

Pawol can at least say she beat robot umps to the field in a major league game. But there’s no valid reason for Pawol to be kept at Triple-A until she loses hope like her predecessors. MLB fans, players and coaches realize that while umpires have a difficult job, it’s not like the league has more good ones than it can handle. Excluding half of the population based on the assumption that women cannot perform as an umpire makes poor sense.

Pawol deserves a chance to prove she belongs in the majors, and that means giving her more games. There’s got to be more ump vacations coming up. Take a day, Blue. Take a week!