Major League Baseball's first female umpire says 'the dream came true'

It was, she said, the day "the dream came true." Jen Pawol, a 48-year-old former art teacher, made US sporting history at the weekend when she became the first female umpire of a Major League Baseball game during the regular season.

- Angela Giuffrida

Pawol, whose debut came on Saturday in a game between the Miami Marlins and the Atlanta Braves, was given a standing ovation as she arrived on the pitch. Supporters held up signs reading "Pawol making HERstory" and "the time has come for one and all to play ball" - a reference to A League of Their Own, the 1992 film about a women's baseball league during the second world war.

She told reporters: "Wow, just incredible, the dream came true...the dream actually came true today." She added: "It was pretty amazing when we took the field, and it seemed like quite a few people started clapping and saying my name, so that was pretty intense and very emotional."

Although MLB has had female coaches and general managers, there had never been a female umpire in a regular season game. "I'm aware of the gravity. I'm aware of the magnitude," she told MLB.com.