Female umpire makes debut

It took eight years but Jen Pawol made the leap from the minors to a major league game spring training contest as umpire in the Astros' 7-4 win over the Nationals on Saturday in Houston's Grapefruit League opener.

Pawol's spring training debut marked the first time since 2007 that a woman umpired a major league spring training game, last done by Ria Cortesio. With a ponytail coming out of her ballcap, Pawol was stationed at third base.

After the traditional pregame meeting with the umpires and managers at home plate, the group posed for pictures. Nationals manager Dave Martinez shook Pawol's hand and chatted with her briefly.

Eight years ago, Pawol, a former New Jersey high school softball star who played at Hofstra, became just the seventh women to umpire a minor league baseball game.

Across the next few weeks, Pawol, 47, will be based in Palm Beach County to work other spring training games. No woman has ever been assigned to umpire a regular season game in the majors.

MLB's move comes 27 years after the gender barrier for game officials was broken in the NBA, nine years after it ended the NFL and two years after the men's soccer World Cup employed a female referee.

“For any umpire, working in the pro system, this is a big, big deal,” Pawol told reporters on a Zoom call in February. “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.”

Pam Postema, who worked in the 1970s and 1980s, became the first woman to umpire a spring training game.

Pawol's only play in the top of the first inning was signaling an infieldfly rule on a pop-up by the Astros' Jon Singleton. In the top of the fourth inning, Pawol moved to second base.