Pawol to make history as MLB's first female umpire

[Velho]

https://www.mlb.com/news/jen-pawol-to-become-mlb-first-female-umpire

Jen Pawol will make history this weekend as the first woman to be an umpire in a regular-season MLB game.

Pawol will ump three games during this weekend’s Marlins-Braves series in Atlanta, including both ends of Saturday’s doubleheader and the series finale on Sunday, when she will be behind home plate. The doubleheader necessitated adding a fifth umpire to the crew, since each home plate umpire skips the other game they’re not working.

Pawol has steadily climbed the umpiring ranks since beginning her career in Rookie ball in 2016. She reached Triple-A in 2023 and became the first woman to umpire that level’s championship game. In 2024, Pawol became the first female umpire in a Spring Training game since Ria Cortesio in 2007.

[johnnyg08]

Fantastic! Sunday is the plate? 

[stevis]

Jen was my station instructor for cage work when I did the MLB clinic in Richmond.  I'll be pulling for her.

 

[SeeingEyeDog]

Congrats to Sister Pawol! This is great news! Thanks for posting, @Velho! Both games this weekend are on Sirius/XM as well as local radio, of course. Not sure about national TV and or streams but, if anyone has that, please post it here.

~Dawg

[stevis]

Looks like MLB Network has the 1:15 Saturday game.

I have my uncle's extra MLB.TV login, so I'll be able to watch them regardless, but I can't share.  I hear there are good times to be had on the high seas if you know where to look.  Arrrrrrr.

[dumbdumb]

congrats

for you gear people - a picture with a mask, sunglasses, scully/helmet/whatchamacallit, no hat.

https://fansided.com/mlb/everything-fans-need-to-know-about-jen-pawol-mlb-s-first-woman-umpire

old article

https://apnews.com/article/woman-umpire-jen-pawol-1afd32aa83b5d2c074489993cd9c2adf

[dumbdumb]

and for the critics that will come out, here are some of the individual umpiring statistics for full time staff or call up staff, with the lowest 20 scores so far this year for an umpire working the plate and the highest 20 scores for an umpire working the plate so far this year. courtesy of umpscorecards.

 

82.31, 86.67, 86.99, 87.23, 87.36, 87.42, 87.59, 87.71, 87.84, 88.02, 88.07, 88.17, 88.19, 88.24, 88.29, 88.31, 88.33, 88.36, 88.41, 88.49.

 

100, 100, 99.45, 99.39, 99.28, 99.22, 99.21, 99.21, 99.19, 99.19, 99.16, 99.12, 98.85, 98.81, 98.71, 98.62, 98.61, 98.58, 98.56, 98.56.

 

[umpstu]

Serious question, do female umpires wear cups or something else for protection? 

[dumbdumb]

1 hour ago, umpstu said:

Serious question, do female umpires wear cups or something else for protection? 

serious answer: tell me all the names of the ones in the power 5 Conference game weekend list and i will go ask them when they work a game in my area.

[umpstu]

18 hours ago, dumbdumb said:

serious answer: tell me all the names of the ones in the power 5 Conference game weekend list and i will go ask them when they work a game in my area.

Not sure of your answer, but my question was not meant as derogatory towards Jen of anybody else. I really want to know and was hoping one of our female umpires on here might know.

[BLWizzRanger]

If Ump-attire or GD doesn't have anything on their web sites, I doubt there is anything.

[beerguy55]

21 hours ago, umpstu said:

Serious question, do female umpires wear cups or something else for protection? 

There are "cups" for female athletes - typically called Jills.   And in any situation where a male would wear one, a female should as well.

[JSam21]

4 hours ago, umpstu said:

Not sure of your answer, but my question was not meant as derogatory towards Jen of anybody else. I really want to know and was hoping one of our female umpires on here might know.

It just seems like an odd question to ask. Not like we are asking what kind of cups the male umpires are wearing... I think that is what they were trying to get at.

[dumbdumb]

8 hours ago, umpstu said:

Not sure of your answer, but my question was not meant as derogatory towards Jen of anybody else. I really want to know and was hoping one of our female umpires on here might know.

here we go umpstu- as beerguy55 said they are "jills" or pelvic protectors.  2 kinds i found are below.

https://www.purehockey.com/product/bauer-jill-pelvic-protector-womens/itm/15499-44/

https://hockey.elitesportsgroup.com/en/pro-jill-pelvic-protector/

nothing with you u.s. just a chance 2 mention ncaa has done a horrible job of recruiting women just like mlb, nfl, and nba until recently, (and no hiring violet palmer and dee kantner in 1997 with kantner getting fired)and then no one else for 17 years till lauren holtcamp in 2014 doesnt count ) and ncaa is now way behind. i never see super 5 Conference having any women on weekend games, on bases, much less the plate. dont even see them on non con either and there are tons more teams than mlb. now if they have turned mens down when asked all the time to work softball, thats fine as long as they are being asked to give baseball a try. and on pairity if they are doing softball. baseball is giving $100 per inning or $900 per game. is softball giving $100 per inning and $700 per game. and in baseball with 4 man 1 guy doesnt even work the plate on weekends so he is just being paid to be a base umpire. seems like some women could be hired to just be base umps, 3rd to second to first on weekends like the men do. and this goes for super Conference basketball and football.

[MadMax]

9 hours ago, umpstu said:

I really want to know and was hoping one of our female umpires on here might know.

There’s a few… not many, but a few. @Tksjewelry would be one of ‘em. 

TK and I have discussed gear-for-women topics for years. Yes, there is a pelvic protector. As @beerguy55 has pointed out, it’s most prolifically used in hockey. In my expert opinion – and one that is shared by @Razzer – hockey is where we should be drawing inspiration from for umpire gear, for both sexes, instead of catchers for either batsport. 

CPs need to be accommodating. Shinguards need to be shorter, while still maintaining enough protection (often, the short ones are less padded, because they’re intended for youth umpires). Plate shoes must be made in smaller sizes (or, perhaps 🤔… rethought?). And, according to TK, pants need to be in women’s sizes. Hear that, Softball 🥎?! Time to drop that stoooopid fetish for heather gray!!! 

[FranklinT]

2 hours ago, MadMax said:

There’s a few… not many, but a few. @Tksjewelry would be one of ‘em. 

TK and I have discussed gear-for-women topics for years. Yes, there is a pelvic protector. As @beerguy55 has pointed out, it’s most prolifically used in hockey. In my expert opinion – and one that is shared by @Razzer – hockey is where we should be drawing inspiration from for umpire gear, for both sexes, instead of catchers for either batsport. 

CPs need to be accommodating. Shinguards need to be shorter, while still maintaining enough protection (often, the short ones are less padded, because they’re intended for youth umpires). Plate shoes must be made in smaller sizes (or, perhaps 🤔… rethought?). And, according to TK, pants need to be in women’s sizes. Hear that, Softball 🥎?! Time to drop that stoooopid fetish for heather gray!!! 

Looked like Jen was rocking a pair of Mizuno plate shoes that I thought might be from Japan?

[834k3r]

13 hours ago, FranklinT said:

Looked like Jen was rocking a pair of Mizuno plate shoes that I thought might be from Japan?

I have a pair of the US model and I have a pair of the Japanese model. The US model has a painted (colored) logo; on the Japanese model the logo's outline is merely stamped (no color). The only other difference is the Japanese toe box is a touch wider (maybe .5"?). It's possible Jen was rocking the Japanese version, but she'd have to have the logo colored in. More likely it's the US version.

[FranklinT]

22 minutes ago, 834k3r said:

I have a pair of the US model and I have a pair of the Japanese model. The US model has a painted (colored) logo; on the Japanese model the logo's outline is merely stamped (no color). The only other difference is the Japanese toe box is a touch wider (maybe .5"?). It's possible Jen was rocking the Japanese version, but she'd have to have the logo colored in. More likely it's the US version.

[ArchAngel72]

Well what footage I saw of her I thought she did a fine job, of course minus that 1st pitch. But Hell I was looking at that 1st pitch and thought The effing catcher and batter were squeezing her hard inside and gave her NO room. Not to mention 1st pitch gitters I am sure. But hey ?90 % accuracy  I know I could not have done that well. Bravo!

 

[834k3r]

34 minutes ago, FranklinT said:

I stand (pun not intended) corrected--I saw the mizuno logo in video clips, but was never quick enough to see the model. Definitely not the 11GU2300.

[dumbdumb]

6 hours ago, ArchAngel72 said:

Well what footage I saw of her I thought she did a fine job, of course minus that 1st pitch. But Hell I was looking at that 1st pitch and thought The effing catcher and batter were squeezing her hard inside and gave her NO room. Not to mention 1st pitch gitters I am sure. But hey ?90 % accuracy  I know I could not have done that well. Bravo!

 

well, she did better than 3 others that day (10th), although all of them were in the 92 with a decimal after, and she did better than 4 yesterday (11th), including 2 that had scores of 89.02 and 88 respectively. but as time goes on, she should have some higher scores and lower scores than her opening score, just like everyone else.

[ArchAngel72]

12 hours ago, dumbdumb said:

well, she did better than 3 others that day (10th), although all of them were in the 92 with a decimal after, and she did better than 4 yesterday (11th), including 2 that had scores of 89.02 and 88 respectively. but as time goes on, she should have some higher scores and lower scores than her opening score, just like everyone else.

Well I certainly hope so.

[dumbdumb]

segunda base - pittsburgh - LAA - Colorado