Home plate umpire Jen Pawol takes her position during the first inning of a spring training baseball game between the Houston Astros and Miami Marlins Sunday, March 10, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. Share Save for later Please log in to bookmark this story. Log In Create Free Account

Jen Pawol was in her hotel room in Nashville, Tenn., when she got the call she had awaited for a decade.

She was going to make her major league debut this weekend, becoming the first female umpire in a century and a half of big league baseball.

“I was overcome with emotion,” Pawol recalled Thursday, two days before she breaks a gender barrier when she works the bases during Miami’s doubleheader at Atlanta.

“It was super emotional to finally be living that phone call that I’d been ho

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