Pawol first woman to ump spring game since ’07
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It took eight years but Jen Pawol made the leap from the minors to a major league spring training game as umpire at the Grapefruit League opener between the
Pam Postema, who worked in the 1970s and ’80s, became the first woman to umpire a spring training game.
With a rotation set for every three innings, Pawol switched to second base in the fourth. She went to first base in the seventh inning and saw her most action. She called out two straight Astros batters off groundouts in the top of the seventh. Her closest call came in the bottom of the seventh, when Pawol motioned safe after the Nationals’ Travis Blankenhorn appeared to beat out a grounder to first that was bobbled.
Pawol’s most noteworthy maneuver occurred at the start of the bottom of the fourth, when she stopped play after noticing the Astros didn’t have a center fielder. The Astros’ Justin Dirden bounded out of the dugout and raced to center field. It is spring training.
During pregame festivities, entertainer Travis Scott took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the field to commemorate the name change of the facility, formerly known as The Ballpark of The Palm Beaches. Scott, who threw out the first pitch, owns CACTI Hard Seltzer.
