\u201cWill they have the perseverance to spend 10 years in the minor leagues?\u201d Barrett said Thursday. \u201cSo that was a discussion I had with her. I wanted to give her those expectations and (explain) that there\u2019s no guarantees and no promises. And even through all that, she said, \u2018I want to give this a shot.\u2019 Whenever someone says that to me, I want them to give them every opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pawol took the chance, embarked on the journey and never veered from the path. She will make her major-league debut<\/a> Saturday in Atlanta, working the bases in a doubleheader between the Braves and the Miami Marlins. Then she\u2019ll have the plate Sunday.<\/p>\n With that, Pawol will become the first female umpire in MLB history. The close-knit community of umpires will now have a trailblazer among its ranks, and Chris Guccione, the crew chief in Atlanta this weekend, welcomed Pawol warmly.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I called him and broke the news, he was screaming with excitement on the phone,\u201d Pawol said Thursday, in a Zoom call with reporters. \u201cWe\u2019re both yelling, \u2018We\u2019re doing it! This is awesome! Let\u2019s go!\u2019 at the top of our lungs. His family happens to be coming in, and he said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to meet my daughter, you\u2019ve got to meet my wife!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Pawol, 48, started umpiring<\/a> as a freshman at West Milford (N.J.) High School, for $15 a game, at the suggestion of a softball teammate. She shelved the idea for a while \u2014 she starred at Hofstra as a three-time Colonial Athletic Association All-Conference catcher \u2014 but impressed Barrett at an umpiring camp in Atlanta in January 2015.<\/p>\n Barrett suggested Pawol attend an official one-day MLB umpiring camp that summer in Cincinnati, and from there she won a scholarship to MLB\u2019s umpire academy. She started her trek of more than 1,200 minor league games in the Gulf Coast League in 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cShe seemed like a sponge at the clinic asking questions,\u201d said Barrett, who remains an instructor at MLB\u2019s umpire camps<\/a>. \u201cI ask a lot of people what their goals are, and her goals were limited to women\u2019s softball World Series, that type of thing. And I was like, \u2018You need to expand your goals.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Then again, there was no precedent for a female umpire in the majors. It had seemed quite possible in 1988, when Pam Postema umpired MLB games in spring training. But Postema never advanced beyond Triple A during the regular season, and in the meantime, other leagues took the lead in hiring female officials \u2014 the NBA first did so in 1997, the NFL in 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not for a lack of MLB trying,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been looking. We\u2019ve been kind of on a mission, which is why I encouraged Jen. We\u2019ve got eight in the minor leagues now, including Jen. We try to recruit and we\u2019re just not having women show interest.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has to be the right woman, just like a man \u2014 it\u2019s a physically demanding job, and Jen is certainly capable of doing it. There\u2019s 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, \u2018That\u2019s something I\u2019d like to pursue.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Baseball has long since evolved from the era of irascible managers \u2014 Tommy Lasorda, Billy Martin, Pete Rose, Earl Weaver \u2014 who might not have tolerated a female umpire. In spring training, Powal said, the Houston Astros\u2019 Joe Espada made a point of encouraging her.<\/p>\n \u201cHe came up to me and he was so excited,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was like the first inning and he said, \u2018Jen, Jen, I know this is your year, you\u2019re going to do it, it\u2019s going to happen,\u2019\u201d Pawol said. \u201cSo that\u2019s kind of the enthusiasm that is happening. It\u2019s a good time to be in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Pawol said she was grateful for all the female umpires who had come before her. Two years ago, when she was in Triple A, she met Postema for dinner in Las Vegas. It had been more than 35 years since Postema\u2019s quest landed her on the cover of Sports Illustrated<\/a>. Pawol was the best hope to finish that climb.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last thing she said to me when I saw her was, \u2018Get it done,\u2019\u201d Pawol said. \u201cSuper intense, just like: \u2018Get it done!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n When Pawol got the call to the majors this week, she said, she sent this text to Postema: \u201cI\u2019m getting it done.\u201d<\/p>\n Over 200, under 100: Kershaw stands alone on the mound<\/p>\n As long as Clayton Kershaw keeps pitching well, fans should want him to continue. Even without his old fastball, Kershaw, at 37, is a delight to watch. But if he does retire after this season, Kershaw could do something that nobody who stepped atop a mound has ever done.<\/p>\n With perhaps nine starts remaining this season, Kershaw\u2019s career record is 217-96 through Thursday. It\u2019s a similar record to Hall of Famers Pedro Martinez (219-100) and Roy Halladay (203-105), but with only two digits in the loss column.<\/p>\n That stat line would be virtually unprecedented. No pitcher has finished his career with 200 victories and fewer than 100 losses since Al Spalding and Bob Caruthers \u2014 and it was a very different game for them.<\/p>\n Spalding pitched mostly in the National Association and went 251-65 from 1871-77. Caruthers pitched mostly in the American Association and went 218-99 from 1884-92. Both pitchers, then, spent their entire careers before the establishment of the pitcher\u2019s mound in 1893.<\/p>\n Think about that: The only pitchers to do what Kershaw might do were throwing off flat ground, from a rectangular box, 55 1\/2 feet from home plate.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a fast track, but Nashville is on it<\/p>\n
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