More than 50 years after trailblazing umpire Bernice Gera was told she “should have stayed in the kitchen,” another woman is breaking baseball’s glass ceiling.
This weekend, Jen Pawol will become the first female umpire to call a regular-season MLB game, working the Miami Marlins vs. Atlanta Braves series at Truist Park. She’ll be behind the plate for Sunday’s series finale and also officiate Saturday’s doubleheader — a historic moment for the sport.
Pawol’s road to the majors is the stuff of determination and grit. A standout softball player at Hofstra University and a competitor in the Amateur Softball Association’s Major Fast Pitch division, she traded in her glove for an umpire’s mask after attending the Minor League Baseball Umpire Training Academy in 2016.
Her rise through the ranks has been relentless. In 2023, Pawol became the first woman in 34 years to umpire a Triple-A game and went on to call the Triple-A Championship from behind home plate. Now, she’s stepping onto baseball’s biggest stage.
Her achievement comes more than half a century after Bernice Gera’s short-lived but groundbreaking debut. On June 24, 1972, Gera took the field for a Class A doubleheader between the Geneva Rangers and Auburn Phillies. Over 2,000 fans showed up — many just to see the history-making ump — but her career was derailed almost immediately by the blatant sexism of the era.
Pawol’s debut isn’t just about calling balls and strikes. It’s about carrying forward a fight that started generations ago and proving there’s a permanent place for women on baseball’s most hallowed fields.
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The sex dose not mean anything if they can do the job the right way. More directly, better than many umps of today. Seams like many make calls in favor of the team they like best and many should be removed from being umpires. Go get them girl and good luck.