2-minute read

West Milford’s Jen Pawol made history Saturday afternoon in Atlanta. The former standout catcher from North Jersey became the first female umpire to work a Major League Baseball regular season game.

Pawol, 48, was the first base umpire for Game 1 of a doubleheader between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves and will be at third base for Game 2.

The New Jersey native will work behind the plate for the series finale on Aug. 10 in Atlanta.

Women in the crowd held up signs: “Welcome to The Show Jen!” and “Thank you, Jen! From girls and women everywhere.”

Watch the video from MLB from Pawol’s historic moment:

History ❤️

Umpiring first base for Game 1 of today’s Marlins-Braves doubleheader, Jen Pawol has become the first woman to umpire in a regular-season MLB game. pic.twitter.com/DG2oHqhE6O

— MLB (@MLB) August 9, 2025Who is MLB umpire Jen Pawol?

Jen Pawol was a standout catcher at West Milford High School. She was a two-time All-State first-team catcher in New Jersey who hit .538 with 153 RBI and 118 runs scored. She also recorded 30 shutouts as the school’s soccer goalie and was later named to The Record’s All-Century teams in both sports.

After graduating in 1995, Pawol played for Hofstra University, the USA Baseball Women’s National Team and the Connecticut Brakettes of the National Pro Fastpitch League.

She began umpiring while teaching and playing in New York, joining a local assignment group in 2005. Four years later, she left teaching to pursue the work full time, beginning with winter leagues in Florida. At a 2015 clinic, she was invited to MLB’s Umpire Training Academy. She started working professional baseball games the following year.

“This is literally all every minor league umpire wants to do with the rest of their life,” Pawol said in 2018. “I’m doing everything I can every day to make that dream come true.”

Pawol has spent the last nine years climbing the umpiring ladder. She began her professional career in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League in 2016 and worked her way through the New York-Penn, Midwest, South Atlantic, Eastern and Pacific Coast leagues.

She reached Triple-A in 2023 and became the first woman to umpire that level’s championship game.

In 2024, Pawol worked spring training games as part of Major League Baseball’s call-up list. She was the first woman assigned to an MLB spring training game since Ria Cortesio in 2007. That year, she officiated games throughout the Grapefruit League, including matchups involving the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals.

“For any umpire, working in the pro system, this is a big, big deal,” Pawol told reporters in February 2024. “This means so much. It’s the culmination of a lot of innings. I’ve probably put in about 1,000 professional games at this point.”

Pawol joined Minor League Baseball as its seventh-ever woman umpire. In 2018, she called her first game involving an MLB team when she worked a Tigers scrimmage against Florida Southern. In an exclusive interview with NorthJersey.com at the time, she described the moment as a test drive.

“I’ve been working on this thing for a few years, so let’s see how this baby runs. So far, it handles pretty well,” she said then.