00:00The first female umpire in Major League Baseball made her debut Saturday,
00:04working a doubleheader between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves at Truist Park.
00:08An historic moment for the game and for Jen Powell,
00:11who's been working for a decade to reach her dream.
00:16Powell worked first base during Game 1 of the doubleheader Saturday
00:20and was at third base during Game 2.
00:22She had several family members in the crowd during the action
00:25and heard from a number of fans before first pitch
00:28as she walked the field with the rest of her crew.
00:31Powell admitted she was anxious after the news broke
00:33and emotional when it finally hit her that she had realized her dream.
00:37This morning I'm like, we just got to get out there now.
00:40We got to do this and make some calls because I was, you know,
00:45just all the emotion and stuff, talking about it the past few days since the news broke
00:49and just having it as a dream for 10 years.
00:52You know, the dream came true today and it's just been incredible.
00:55Powell had an even bigger moment Sunday,
00:57calling balls and strikes for the first time.
00:59So how'd she do in the spotlight?
01:02Well, according to umpire scorecards, not bad for a debut,
01:06she called 92.7% of balls and strikes accurately during the series finale,
01:12getting 140 of the 151 taken pitches accurate.
01:17The umpire average for 2025 is 94.2%.
01:22Another online measuring service, umpire auditor posted some numbers on X and said,
01:27umpire Jen Powell missed the first call of the game but settled in to call a relatively unremarkable game.
01:34She missed 14 calls and had a correct call rate of 90.3%.
01:38She was ranked 13 of 15 umpires on the day.
01:42She also received high praise from managers Brian Snitker and Clayton McCullough.
01:46Jen did a really nice job.
01:48I think she seemed very composed back there.
01:50She handled and managed the game very well.
01:53And a big day for her, big day for Major League Baseball.
01:57So I, you know, congratulated her again on that because it's quite the accomplishment
02:01and wish her the best moving forward.
02:03Her 92.7% hit rate puts her nose to nose with several full-time Major League umpires,
02:10including veterans Laz Diaz and C.B. Buckner, who tend to draw the most criticism from fans.
02:16She's also on par with more anonymous umpires like Bruce Dreckman and Carlos Torres.
02:22The 48-year-old's road to the big leagues has been like many players and coaches.
02:26She was a softball player at Hofstra University and umpired college softball games for six seasons
02:32before attending a Major League Baseball tryout camp in 2015.
02:36She worked her way through the minors and in 2024 became the first female in 21 years
02:42to umpire games in Major League Spring training.
02:45It's not known when Powell will umpire another Major League game,
02:48but after passing the first test, she'll stay on the call-up list with 15 or so AAA call-up candidates.
02:55Marlins starting pitcher Cal Quantrill said,
02:58If this is normal, then we're going to treat it normal too.
03:01I thought it was fine, and I think she did a quality job.
03:04For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis.
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