Another step forward for professional women’s baseball in the US.
That future began to actualize over a whirlwind weekend in Washington, where more than 600 women from 10 countries arrived for open tryouts ahead of the WPBL’s inaugural season next summer. Those hopefuls included heralded vets of the international circuit, such as [Kelsie] Whitmore and Japanese pitcher Ayami Sato. Others, including a few women in their 40s and 50s, attended the tryout as a shot-in-the-dark bucket-list item, a chance to see how they would fare or what they have left.
For many, it was the first time they had ever shared a ballfield exclusively with other women. According to Baseball for All, roughly 100,000 girls play youth baseball each year in the U.S., but only about 1,000 continue into high school ball. Participation gradually dwindles throughout Little League and then plummets once girls reach middle and high school. Many of the most talented players are incentivized to switch to softball, which offers ample travel ball and scholarship opportunities.
Baseball for All — founded by [Justine] Siegal in 2010 — was designed to change that. And now, Siegal’s newest project, the WPBL, is meant to serve as the capstone: a league for all young girls and women to strive toward.
That league took its most important step forward on Monday, once the original pool of 600 had been whittled down to 100 players. Those finalists were split into four squads that played a pair of scrimmages at Nationals Park. The turnout for a weekday morning was strong, but the symbolism was stronger still. The stands were dotted with young girls clutching baseballs and pens, eagerly seeking autographs from their new heroes. Co-founder Keith Stein said the league has sold more than $20,000 worth of hats in just the past week.
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Stein announced that team names and host cities will be determined within the next four weeks. The dispersal draft, for which all 100 players in Monday’s games are eligible, will be held in October. An unidentified number of international players, unable to make the trip to D.C., will also be included in the draft pool. Notably, athletes still competing at the collegiate level, such as Brown’s Olivia Pichardo, will not participate in the league so as to not jeopardize their NCAA eligibility. Stein also shared that a number of high-profile ambassadors will be added to the league’s leadership group in the near future.
Current rumblings point toward an inaugural season featuring six clubs playing in one central location. That would ease the financial and logistical lift of organizing city-to-city travel. Identifying the right area — an easy-to-travel-to metropolitan center with multiple suitable venues and sufficient interest in women’s baseball — is crucial. Games are likely to be held exclusively on weekends in order to maximize attendance. That schedule would allow many of the athletes, who will be compensated relative to their draft position, to still work during the week.
See here and here for the background. I’m excited and I’m looking forward to the launch of this new league. More baseball is good for us all, and having a new women’s league is even better. Let’s get this started.
UPDATE: NBC News also has a good overview of the current action.