Rusty Weiss
Jen Pawol, a 49-year-old from New Jersey, made history last season as the first woman to umpire a Major League Baseball (MLB) regular-season game.
She’s a trailblazer, no doubt. A shatterer of glass ceilings. But there are some folks on the socials who will take notice when Pawol suddenly turns into Angel Hernandez.
Side note—Pawol is not a bad umpire. She’s certainly not Angel Hernandez-level bad. And she shouldn’t have one bad call stick with her. But the internet is unforgiving.
And, well, how the hell did she miss this one?
The ABS challenge is going to make a lot of umpires look silly. Jen Pawol felt that today during a spring training game with one of the easiest strike calls in MLB history. pic.twitter.com/FT2YA39rV6
— BaseballHistoryNut (@nut_history) March 20, 2026
Lest you think this is a male-female thing, just listen to the announcer on that pitch claim the breaking ball was “outside.” Fortunately, the ABS system has made its way into the majors and helped correct both the announcer and Pawol.
“We had our first challenge, and the call is overturned,” he explained. “On a pitch that was right down the middle of the plate that was called a ball.”
I mean, seriously, that thing couldn’t have been more down the middle if you tried. What was Pawol looking at? Certainly not the pitch. Unfortunately for her, baseball fans were merciless with their mockery.
“Repeal the 19th Amendment,” one fan joked.
Another quipped that her name might just be “Angela Hernandez.”
One observer astutely noted that bad umpiring knows no boundaries: “So the female umps are just as awful as the male umps. At least they are consistent.”
Nailed it.
READ MORE:
Jen Pawol’s Egregious Down-the-Middle Miss: ABS Overturns Obvious Strike in Spring Training Nightmare
Look, it’s one missed call. One inexplicably missed call. But having humans make such decisions will always lead to some mistakes. Thank goodness the ABS system is now in play to correct those egregious errors.
In fairness to Pawol, nothing will ever be as bad as this series from Hernandez in 2024, when he left Texas Rangers play-by-play announcer Dave Raymond absolutely beside himself by butchering three straight calls well outside of the strike zone.
Raymond’s call of, “You have got to be kidding me! What in the world?” says it all.
THREE IN A ROW ANGEL??? pic.twitter.com/B2ZVhellGR
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 13, 2024
A former standout softball player at Hofstra University, Pawol began her umpiring career in 2016 in the Gulf Coast League after attending MLB’s Umpire Training Academy.
In 2023, she became the first woman in 34 years to umpire at the Triple-A level and officiated the Triple-A Championship game. Pawol’s MLB debut last season followed her work in spring training games in 2024 and 2025, marking her as the first female umpire in such games since 2007.
Her performance thus far, as rated by UmpScorecards (a widely referenced independent tool that grades called pitches against expected accuracy using Statcast data, pitch modeling, and factors such as location/zone interpretation), is generally average to slightly below MLB standards.
She’ll get better with time. Hopefully.