Seventy years since the last professional women’s baseball league, another one hopes to give women a chance to shine in baseball. The Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL) is set to launch in 2026, the first professional women’s baseball league since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League dissolved in 1954.
FILE - Justine Siegal throws during batting practice to Cleveland Indians minor leaguers during spring training, Feb. 21, 2011, in Goodyear, Ariz. FILE - Massachusetts assistant baseball coach Julie Croteau watches the team during practice in Amherst, Mass., Feb. 28, 1995. Allison Schroder #16 of Team Canada pitches during a WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup exhibition game against Team USA at Baseball Central on Friday, July 26, 2024 in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Siegal was the first woman to coach for a professional baseball team with the independent league Brockton Rox in 2009, and the first woman to throw batting practice to an MLB team with Cleveland during spring training in 2001. Around 1,300 high school girls played baseball on boys teams across the United States during the 2023-24 school year, according to a survey done by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Keith Stein, a lawyer and businessman who co-founded the WPBL with Siegal, said the hope is to help establish a solid women’s baseball culture in the U.S. to create more playing opportunities for girls in the future. While Stein expects the WPBL to become one of the major women’s sports leagues in the near future, it won’t get there without facing some of the same barriers as the women’s leagues that preceded them.
Oakland Athletics Angel Reese General News Sports U.S. News Caitlin Clark Business U.S. News
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