Braves fans will witness history as MLB confirms Jen Pawol's umpire debut

On Wednesday, MLB announced that umpire Jen Pawol is set to get her first major league start behind the dish as part of the umpiring crew for the Braves' weekend series against the Marlins. It will make her the first female umpire to ever call a major league game, nearly 150 years after the National League was founded.

Pawol got her start in Rookie ball in 2016 and in 2023 became the first female umpire to reach Triple-A in 34 years (she's only the seventh professional female umpire in baseball history). Last year, she became the first female umpire to work at spring training game in 17 years, when she posted up along the third base line during an Astros-Nationals matchup. She also called last year's Triple-A championship game between the Norfolk Tides and Oklahoma City Dodgers.

With all of those credentials laid out, which make it clear that Pawol is more than qualified to call one of Saturday's games, surely everyone will recognize that getting to this point is a long- and well-deserved accomplishment based on merit, right? Right?

If you're feeling up for a rage scroll, maybe treat yourself to the replies on MiLB's initial post announcing the news.

Jen Pawol set to make history as MLB's first female umpire during Marlins-Braves series finale

Umpires are already not well-loved by baseball fans for many valid reasons, but one has to imagine that it's been even tougher for Pawol, one of the only women to do this professionally in a setting that is and will always be dominated by men. This is not a criticism; it's an inherent fact of the game.

If male umpires are already vulnerable to vitriol from players, managers, and fans alike, Pawol is vulnerable to it tenfold because she's a woman.

There's no reason not to criticize Pawol if she makes a bad call — that comes with the territory, and something any person who chooses umpiring as their profession knows they're liable to receiving, regardless of gender — but she is decidedly not any worse (or better, for that matter) at her job because she's a woman.

Hopefully, Braves fans will take Pawol's start behind the dish for what it is: historical. A landmark for women in baseball. She's a veteran in the sport and as qualified as any of her colleagues on this weekend's umpiring crew. She might not call a perfect game — and shouldn't be expected to — but we should hope that she does, because it'll just be good for the game.

And may all of the loud, sad misogynists on Twitter crawl back into their holes.