Seriously, what an accomplishment 👋

Umpires represent MLB-- they take on the responsibility of the players safety and have the final word on everything relating to play. It's not a matter of gender. Pawol earned promotion through years of hard work and passion for the job, just like those who came before.

Her hard work and passion for the game has paid off. Hope she has a great career as an ump and inspires lots of gals to officiate in many sports!

I've never seen one of these before, and it's hard to read on my phone, but it appears to be only about calling balls and strikes. Tlhere's gotta be a lot more than that to a full reprt card because there's a lot more than that to umpiring,, especially behind the plate.

I watched her work for about three innings today. She seemed as good as most any other umpire I've seen in 60 year, and seemed very poised considering the circumstances.

I hope she comes back and others follow.

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/1mmte1h/closecallsports_final_umpire_scorecard_for_jen/

Last edited Mon Aug 11, 2025, 12:45 PM - Edit history (1)

Mike Winters is a retired crew chief, and a friend.
I umpire ages 8-18 years old and even had the privilege of umpiring behind the plate for D1 scrimmages.
I've taken my share of shots to the mask (I have a video of one) & couple shots to a forearm. One from a wood bat on a swing, from a player who didn't use batting gloves & no pine tar and a second from a fastball that the catcher couldn't move his mit fast enough to even slow it down.

One of the things that Winters told me was that umpires hate the K-Zone because the box is never adjusted for each batter, it remains the same for all batters. Left to right is easier because the plate never changes in width, but they get the most complaints from coaches on these pitches because they can't see the left to right (which I agree); but can see how high & low the pitches are.
And that MLB uses the K-Zones for Quality Control and requires umpires to maintain 95% accuracy.

I personally love calling Balls & Strikes, and the better the pitchers the easier it is to call (but the movement on pitches is spectacular). I did a HS tournament game with 2 really good teams, each throwing their ace. The game lasted 1 hr. 15 minutes. We entered the 7th at 65 minutes.

40 years ago in the California League, when it was Advanced 'A'. We went out for pizza and beer a couple of times, and they told me a lot with a few beers in them.

Another thing about the box is it's two-dimensional. If someone like Koufax could break off a curve so hard that it was outside-outside-outside and then broke enough to catch the rear point of the plate, it't be a strike -- or, should be. But you couldn't tell that on tee vee, or even from behind the plate unless you (an umpire) had outstanding depth perception. I'd like to see close breaking stuff from an overhead camera as well as the standard view.

I could never be an umpire. I couldn't/wouldn't put up with the bullshit.

I remember Mike Winters, btw. That is, I remember he was an umpire for a long time, and I've seen him work quite a few games, including postseason. But nobody remembers much about an umpire unless they blow a big one, like Don Denkinger, or start a big hubbub, like Harry Wendlestedt. (I was watching that game and praying for a miracle for Drysdale so he could keep his shutout streak going. Wendlestedt provided it when he ruled Dick Dietz didn't try to get out of the way when Drysdale hit him with the bases loaded. Imagine that call being made today.)

I've come to the conclusion that fans & coaches actually don't know the rules of the game.

As an umpire I have to take a test every year before the start of the season, and I have to pass it @ 80%, based on our umpire association, which I believe it way too low. We should pass it at 90%, with those that passed with scores over 95% getting the better games.

As an umpire, when I hear the fans screaming about a call, I literally laugh, because I know those fans don't actually know the rules.
If I'm being harassed by a fan throughout the game, at the end of the game, I walk up to the fan and just say, "You should be an umpire, because you're really good at it. Our association is always looking for umpires. We would even train you. You're making better calls than me and you're 60 feet away." Obviously dripping with sarcasm, most walk away, but some would still discuss the game with me before I tell them the actual rule.

David Wells, a pitcher that threw a Perfect Game with the Yankees, is a manager for a local high school team. When I did a game for his team, at the end of the game, he walked up to me and said to me, "You are the best umpire we've had all season." I replied, "Can you please tell that to our Umpire Association Assignor?"

I had a catcher, that received a baseball scholarship to Northwestern, after the game, tell me "You have the best strike zone." Again, I say, "Please tell that to our Umpire Association Assignor?"

Again I really enjoy being behind the plate.

Screaming, abusive managers, coaches, plsyers and, most of all fans. In the minors, having your car keyed (or worse) by those fans.

Again in the minors, the long car rides between cities, living on fast food, sometimes sleeping in the car to save money because your salary qualifies you for SNAP benefits.

But mostly the fans --and, in the minors, the managers, because they'll test you.

Fans/Parents & Managers I can handle.
Players at the level I ump wouldn't dare raise there voice to an ump.

In California, any HS player that gets kicked out of the game, means they are suspended until they discuss with the CIF what happened, and they have to attend an Anger Management session on a Saturday with their parents. It also gets placed in their transcripts, which could affect their ability to get a baseball scholarship at a university.

So times when a player should be kicked out, I approach the manager and simply say, "Look, that. kid is out for the game. He either sits in the dugout and support his teammates, but he can't leave the dugout or I'll kick him out, and if you don't take him out of the game, I will kick him out, which means all the accompanying paperwork on your part and my part. I'll let you decide." Every time, the managers pulled the player from the game.

I refused to do Adult League baseball. Although they know very little of the rules, they will argue as if they do. And there is no structure for incidents that occur. In high school the CIF has jurisdiction, while adult baseball has none. So if you kick someone out of an adult league game, they might be waiting for you at your car, so they can try to beat you up.

But I still love umpire, specially behind the plate.

I covered a lot of prep baseball and softball in the '90s and '00s, and many times I saw batters jut look at an umpire like "Did you call that one from Pluto?" for a second, but then just walk back to the bench. They knew better than to contest a call.

It was quite different in the minors. In 1984, I photographed Jose Tolentino (who had a cup of coffee with Houston in 1991) as he went absolutely psychotic after being called out at first by the plate umpire. I burned about half a roll as three guys held him back from goung after the umpire while screaming stuff like "You're a dead man!"

I saw a lot of tense arguments in the Cal League,but nothing anywhere near that. It was actually a bit scary.

(Before the next game, the ump asked me if he could have a few shots for his suspension report.i printed five 8x10s of Tolentino at his worst for him.

(Funny part was, Tolentino was already slated to go to Double-A, so he sat out his suspension across the country in Albany, NY.)