Female umpire and former Hofstra softball star Jen Pawol works Yankees game behind the plate

TAMPA, Fla. — Aaron Boone has been known to get on a plate umpire or two during his seven years managing the Yankees.

Which is akin to stating you might run into a bit of traffic driving on the BQE.

Boone is fourth among active managers in ejections with 39, trailing Bruce Bochy (86), Bob Melvin (64) and back-in-the-game Terry Francona (50).

But the 39 really comes into focus considering Boone has managed in 1,032 career games compared to 4,356 for Bochy, and 3,622 for Francona and 3,104 for Melvin.

All of which is to say it was no surprise Boone chirped a bit – though barely registering on the Boone-Umpire Richter Scale – on a called third strike against Aaron Judge in Saturday’s first inning (the pitch did appear a tad high).

Who called the pitch behind the plate?

Jen Pawol, the former Hofstra softball star who is trying to become the first woman to umpire a game in the major leagues.

Last spring the 48-year-old Pawol, who attended umpire school in 2015 and began umpiring in the minors in 2016, became the first woman since Ria Cortesio in 2007 to umpire a major-league spring training game. Pawol spent 2024 as a crew chief in Triple-A, putting her on the doorstep of a call to the majors.

Big-league umpires receive four weeks of vacation time in-season and roughly 20 – give or take a few either way – minor league umpires receive call-ups to take their place (or, as happens frequently, injuries to their major-league brethren occur). Pawol, eligible for one of those calls last season, did not receive one, but her time would seem to be coming as she generally has gotten favorable reviews.

Including, incidentally, by Boone.

“I actually kind of went up and introduced myself to her later in the game,” Boone said. “Had a pleasant interaction with her. She has a good reputation.”

Boone smiled.

“I thought she missed a couple of calls on the captain (Judge) that first,” he said. “But overall I thought she did a good job, and certainly enjoyed my introduction to her.”

One of Major League Baseball’s top umpire supervisors, Charlie Reliford, a veteran of 20 big-leagues seasons and an umpire supervisor since 2010, was in attendance Saturday, as he was on Friday night when Pawol worked the bases.