Courtesy of Sports Illustrated
For the first time in seven decades, women will have a baseball league of their own.
The Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) announced its plan to take the field with six teams in the northeastern United States in 2026. The growing popularity of women’s college and professional sports, especially basketball and soccer, has helped bring attention to a long awaited growth and support for women’s baseball.
The WPBL was co-founded by Keith Stein, the owner of the Intercounty Baseball League’s Maple Leafs, and Justine Siegal, a former MLB coach. Ayami Sato, a pitcher who won five Women’s Baseball World Cup titles with Japan, and Cito Gaston, the manager who led the Toronto Blue Jays to back-to-back World Series titles, will be special advisors for the WPBL.
Siegal, a Cleveland native like myself, was the first woman to coach for a professional men’s baseball team with the Brockton Rox in 2009, the first woman to throw a batting practice for an MLB team with the then-Cleveland Indians during Spring Training in 2011, and the first woman to coach an MLB team when she signed with the Oakland A’s in 2015. Siegal is also the founder of the nonprofit organization Baseball For All, which provides opportunities to women and girls to play and work in baseball. On Baseball For All’s website, Siegal says, “Too many girls are still told they can’t play baseball. I want girls to know they can follow their passions and that they have no limits—that their dreams matter.”
Now, these dreams have the opportunity and support to come alive on the field.
The most difficult task for the WPBL will be finding enough players to field six teams, as no state offers baseball as a high school sport for girls, and the NCAA and NAIA only offer softball, not women’s baseball. There are many girls in high school, though, who have played on the boy’s team. This number has the chance to grow now that girls can aspire to a career in professional baseball.
Women’s baseball isn’t just gaining popularity in the United States either. Since 2004, the Women’s Baseball World Cup has been held nine times. 12 countries compete in the bi-annual tournament, and a total of 18 countries have participated in the event in the past 20 years. Just like with men’s baseball, the sport is very competitive between the United States and Japan. The US won the first two tournaments, and Japan has won the past seven times in a row. The talent of these athletes now has the opportunity to be seen year round, especially with the WPBL planning for a national broadcast deal rather than having regional network coverage.
The plan is for a draft to take place in November of 2025, while decisions on roster sizes and game rules are still in the works. The teams would most likely use minor league and college stadiums, but hopefully it doesn’t take long for them to outgrow those venues.
There is no better time than now for women to finally get the equal support and attention they deserve, both in baseball and across all sports. Because sports isn’t just a boys club anymore.
If this article catches the eye of anyone involved with the WPBL, may I suggest Cleveland as a destination for one of the teams?
Courtesy of the Boston Globe
Comentários