Jen Pawol, former Hofstra softball star, to umpire MLB spring training games again and added to regular-season substitute list

TAMPA — Jen Pawol didn’t get a call-up last year, but she’ll have another shot at making history, as the former Hofstra softball star will once again be umpiring MLB games in spring training and has been added to the substitute list for the regular season.

Pawol, 48, was the first woman in 17 years to get such a promotion when she took the field last February for a game between the Astros and Nationals in West Palm Beach. Despite being positioned to make the leap to the majors, and finally break the gender barrier for the last of the big four North American professional sports, Pawol ultimately was not selected for a fill-in assignment during the regular season.

This year, Pawol is among the 21 spring-training invitees who will work alongside MLB’s full-time umpires for the next five weeks, and still the only woman. Over MLB’s 121-year history (the first World Series was played in 1903), only a handful of women have even umpired minor-league games, the more notable being Pam Postema (1977-89) and Ria Cortesio, who was the last woman before Pawol to umpire a major-league spring training game, back in 2007.