ATLANTA — Before the first pitch was thrown Saturday and before Jen Pawol became the first female umpire to work a regular-season game in major-league history, the importance of the moment already was apparent, not just for Pawol but for baseball and so many of its fans.
She realized that when her name was announced and she got an ovation at Truist Park similar to what favorite players from the Atlanta Braves receive, rather than the indifference normally accorded umpire introductions.
“It was pretty amazing when we took the field, and it seemed like quite a few people started clapping and saying my name and stuff, so that was pretty intense and very emotional,” said Pawol, who still fought back those emotions an hour after the game ended, when she talked with reporters about the historic moment.
When Braves pitcher Hurston Waldrep fired the first pitch of the doubleheader opener against the Miami Marlins, it was official. Pawol, 48, broke one of baseball’s final barriers, becoming the first woman umpire in a regular-season game, after paying her dues with more than 1,200 minor-league games worked in the past decade.
She was first-base umpire for the doubleheader opener and third-base ump for the nightcap, and Pawol was scheduled to be behind the plate calling balls and strikes in Sunday’s series finale. Umpiring crews add a fifth member for doubleheaders, since the home-plate umpire for one game doesn’t work the other half of a doubleheader.
“This is one of the proudest moments I’ve been part of in all my career,” veteran umpire Chris Guccione, chief of the crew that Pawol joined this weekend, her first call-up as a rover umpire in Triple A.
“I’ve been blessed with working playoffs, I’ve worked two World Series, All-Star Games, and this one is right up there with those, and my family coming out and watching and all that,” Guccione said. “But this is up there. It gives me chills just even thinking about it. And the magnitude? I was just sitting here, and it just kind of hit me just now the magnitude of this whole thing and how hard she’s worked.
“I have a daughter, and she was so excited to meet Jen. This is just a great role model for girls and women out there, and I’m so proud of her. When (director of umpire development) Rich Rieker told me a couple weeks ago, I could not wait for this day. This is a special moment. I’m so proud of her.”
Pawol was shown on the stadium videoboard between innings to acknowledge the moment. That drew another ovation.
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, 2025
“Wow, just incredible,” Pawol said between games of the doubleheader. “Like, the dream actually came true today, and I’m still living in it. And I’m just so grateful to my family, to Major League Baseball for just creating such an amazing work environment, to all the umpires that I work with. We have just amazing camaraderie, and we’re having fun out there. We’re working hard, but we’re having fun. I’m just so thankful.”
The history-making moment added to an already memorable day for Waldrep, as well. In his second game of the season and third start of his career, the rookie impressed again with six innings of four-hit ball in the Braves’ 7-1 win, with one walk and six strikeouts. The only hit against him through five innings was a bunt single.
He smiled at the mention of Pawol, who he said umpired a couple of his Triple-A games.
“It’s really cool,” Waldrep said. “I was able to congratulate her. That’s awesome for her. I can’t imagine how hard it is for her to have come up, and everyone’s probably told her it was impossible. But to be a part of that — they made a big deal out of it, as it should be, and that’s pretty cool for her.”
Jen Pawol inspected Braves starter Hurston Waldrep’s glove during the first inning. (Brett Davis / Getty Images)
Pawol has the sort of emphatic “out” and “safe” calls that fans and players appreciate. And she does so with conviction and without delay. When the Marlins’ Xavier Edwards grounded into an inning-ending 3-6-1 double play in the top of the third, she gave a vigorous punch with her right arm while raising her left leg for emphasis.
“She did a good job,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “You can tell she knows what she’s doing.”
Snitker, having served as a minor-league manager for decades, also appreciated Pawol’s journey.
“Anytime anybody grinds their way through the minor leagues, I don’t care who it is, that’s a tough job,” he said. “And talking to the umpires over my years, with their travel and what they go through, I’m happy for anybody that sticks it out and grinds through a career like that, gets the opportunity to be where they wanna be. So, good for her.”
It took Pawol a decade of umpiring in the minor leagues before she got to work a regular-season game, and it took women more than a century for the opportunity.
“I’m aware of the gravity; I’m aware of the magnitude” of breaking through this barrier, Pawol said during a Zoom call with reporters Thursday. “I believe that I’m going to be a very good steward and representative for young girls and women, and boys and men, that this is possible.”
Pam Postema, who reached the Triple-A level in the 1980s but never umpired a regular-season MLB game, said of Pawol in a text message to The Athletic, “I followed her career. Couldn’t happen to a better person. I always knew there would be a woman in the big leagues. It just took time.”
During the pregame lineup exchange at home plate before the doubleheader opener, Marlins manager Clayton McCullough shook Pawol’s hand and held it a little longer than usual as he leaned in to say something to her. The umpires and team representatives then had a group photo taken, with Braves bench coach Walt Weiss standing next to Pawol, his hand on her shoulder.
Pawol ran out to her position before the first pitch, heard some fans chanting her name, and saw dozens of friends and family members, including her dad, seated in an upper deck after Guccione pointed them out to her.
Marlins first-base coach Tyler Smarslock shook her hand before the first pitch. Braves first baseman Matt Olson gave her a salute, as did center fielder Michael Harris II as he trotted by on his way to his position.
Pawol, a Hofstra University graduate, called MLB spring training games in 2024, becoming the first female umpire to do so since 2007. She was only the third woman to umpire a major-league spring training game.
Pawol powered toward Saturday’s milestone by umpiring in the Triple-A International League since 2023 and was the first woman to umpire the International League championship game. She was the first woman to umpire a game at that level in 35 years.
Now, she’s etched her name in MLB history. Although Guccione said he’d known for a couple of weeks, Pawol didn’t know until Wednesday that she was going to make her MLB debut.
She was in her Nashville hotel room when she got the call — Rieker and vice president of umpire operations Matt McKendry were on the line to inform her she was going to umpire three games this weekend in Atlanta.
“I was overcome with emotion,” Pawol said during the Zoom call with reporters Thursday.
Ted Barrett, who spent 29 years as a big-league umpire, told The Athletic this week, “It has to be the right woman, just like a man — it’s a physically demanding job, and Jen is certainly capable of doing it.
“There’s a lot of women out there that are capable of doing it. My hope is that as she makes her debut, this brings awareness to it. And, who knows, there might be a young girl watching her on TV and saying, ‘That’s something I’d like to pursue.’”
This breakthrough comes long after other major sports leagues took the lead in hiring female officials, including the NBA (in 1997) and the NFL (2015). Pawol doesn’t know when her next big-league assignment will be, but she made it. She arrived Saturday.
“I understand the gravity completely, and the outpouring of support that I’ve had over the years of people knowing that this is my goal and I’m taking this seriously, and they were taking me seriously,” he said. “And it culminated today. So, it’s just fuel for the fire. We’ll go out and work harder tonight, harder tomorrow, and just keep it going. Keep this going.”
(Top photo: Todd Kirkland / MLB Photos via Getty Images)