NEW YORK — Jen Pawol was in a hotel room in Nashville when she got the call she had awaited for a decade.
She was going to make her MLB 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 a doubleheader between the Miami Marlins and the host Atlanta Braves at Truist Park.
“It was super emotional to finally be living that phone call that I’d been hoping for and working towards for quite a while, and I just felt super full. I feel like a fully charged battery ready to go.”
Her voice quavering, Pawol talked about getting the news during a Wednesday conference call with director of umpire development Rich Rieker and vice president of umpire operations Matt McKendry.