A Real ‘League of Their Own’: Women Ready To Return to the Professional Diamond

Justine Siegal, 50, has already blazed many trails in her baseball career. She was the first female coach of a professional men’s baseball team, the first woman to throw batting practice to a Major League Baseball team, the first female coach employed by an MLB team, and the first woman to coach professional baseball in Japan and Mexico.So, it came as no surprise when she formed the newly announced Women’s Pro Baseball League, set to begin play in the spring of 2026. It will be the first professional league for women since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League dissolved in 1954.More than 600 women have registered to participate in tryouts scheduled for Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., on August 22-25. Organizers are searching for 150 players for the league’s inaugural draft in October.The first cuts will be made after drill-focused sessions, performance testing, and player evaluations. Remaining prospects will then compete in a live game at Nationals Park on August 25. The league plans to have a regular season of about 40 games per team, followed by playoffs. A search is under way for owners of the six inaugural franchises to be located in the northeastern United States.“We’re looking for athletes and ball players,” Ms. Siegal told CBS. “We’re going to hit fungos at them. We want to see what the pitchers have: Is it a curve? Is it a slider? We want to see the best of the best. That’s what we’re looking for, the best players around the world.”Women playing professional baseball goes back centuries. According to the WPBL, the first women’s pro baseball team, the Dolly Vardens from Philadelphia, a Black women’s team, was formed in 1867. The first women’s game between two professional teams occurred in 1875 when the “Blondes” and “Brunettes” played against each other.After women were banned from playing professional baseball with men in 1931, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League made its debut in 1943, with the women required to wear fitted skirts and makeup during games. The league was immortalized by a movie, “A League of Their Own,” in the 1990s, in which actor Tom Hanks uttered the memorable line, “There’s no crying in baseball.”The USA Women’s National Baseball Team was created in 2004 and continues to compete sporadically in international games, including the International Baseball Federation Women’s World Cup and the Women’s Pan-American Championships. The goal behind the WPBL is to bring the top international talent under one umbrella.The women won’t be wearing skirts in the WPBL. The main attraction will be the talent. A special adviser to the WPBL and member of the U.S. Women’s National Team, Alex Hugo, said there is a wealth of untapped talent.“There’s been such a high level of international play for so many years, having all that talent spread around the world coming here, this organization is going to allow them to showcase the international levels that we’ve seen,” Ms. Hugo said. Ms. Siegal knows what she’s looking for. In 2009, she became the first female coach of a professional men’s baseball team when she joined the staff of the Brockton Rox in the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball. In 2011, she threw batting practice to the Cleveland Indians during spring training, becoming the first woman to accomplish the feat.In 2015, she became the first female coach employed by an MLB team when the Oakland Athletics hired her for a two-week coaching stint in the Instructional League in Arizona. She also coached the Israel National Baseball Team during its 2016 qualifier for the 2017 World Baseball Classic.Her love of baseball continued with her founding of “Baseball for All,” which creates opportunities for girls to play and coach in the sport. The organization operates national tournaments, hosts clinics and camps, and supports girls’ baseball teams across the country. Now, Ms. Siegal is starting the WPBL. “I’m looking for people who can hit the long ball,” she said. “We’re looking for those who have played baseball and have a good baseball acumen. People are going to come and watch them play, and the play is going to be so exciting and wonderful.”The formation of the WPBL comes at a time when women’s sports are growing in popularity. The WNBA recently announced it is expanding to five cities over the next five years, women’s soccer matches in Europe and the United States are playing to huge crowds, the National Women’s Soccer League raised more than $100 million in funding, and the recent Women’s College World Series set viewership and attendance records.The WPBL announced it has a media deal in place with Fremantle, a production, broadcast, and distribution company.“There’s been so many females who have wanted this and dream of this,” Ms. Hugo said. “Now we’re finally getting it.”

A Real ‘League of Their Own’: Women Ready To Return to the Professional Diamond

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