CHICAGO — The nation’s first women’s professional baseball league in nearly 30 years is about to embark on its inaugural season in what marks a major milestone in the scattered history of the sport in the United States.
The Women's Pro Baseball League is also part of a timeline that goes back to the very beginning of the sport.
“Women have always been part of this game,” said Kat Williams, the chief executive officer of the International Women’s Baseball Center. “We’ve always played, we’ve always umpired, we’ve always coached. And in some of the earliest references in the 17th century, the earliest references to something like a game of baseball, it was women that were playing it.”
Next up is the WPBL, which plays its first game Saturday. The league has four teams — New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco — for its first year, but the 15 regular-season games for each club and the playoffs will be held at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois. The ballpark has a seating capacity of 5,200, and Springfield hosted one of the earliest paid women’s games when the Blondes faced the Brunettes on Sept. 11, 1875.
Kelsie Whitmore, Mo'ne Davis and Ayami Sato are among the marquee names expected to play in the league's first season. Each team will have 15 active players for the seven-inning games.
“It’s amazing. It’s one of those kind of things that we always hoped would happen, but wasn’t sure that we would see it happen anytime soon,” said Leslie Heaphy, the president of the IWBC and the chair of the women in baseball committee for the Society for American Baseball Research. “And it’s fitting, it's needed, and yeah, it's exciting.”
Women's baseball had a breakthrough moment during World War II
While women have been connected to baseball since the beginning of the game, the first professional women's league was the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Immortalized in the film “A League of Their Own,” it ran from 1943-54.
The AAGPBL began during World War II as a softball league before converting to baseball. Jean Faut, Doris Sams and Dottie Kamenshek were among the league's best players. Maybelle Blair, who pitched in the AAGPBL in 1948, is on the WPBL's advisory board.
“It was never intended to last past 1945 when it first started, but the fact that it lasts through 1954 tells you something about the importance, I think,” said Heaphy, an associate professor at Kent State-Stark.
“It tells you about the determination of those involved, and I think it tells you a lot about the interest of the fans.”
Hollywood spurred renewed interest in women's baseball
After the AAGPBL ceased operations, it would be another 40 years — in the wake of the box office success for “A League of Their Own” — before interest in professional women’s baseball resurfaced.
From 1994-97, Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro managed an all-female pro team, the Colorado Silver Bullets, that barnstormed the country facing men's amateur and semi-pro teams. The Ladies Professional Baseball League played in 1997 and part of 1998 before folding. It was based in the southwestern United States before expanding to New York and New Jersey. Former big league sluggers Bobby Bonds and George Foster were involved in another short-lived league in the mid-1990s in Florida.
The Women’s Baseball World Cup launched in 2004 and will be played for the 11th time in 2027. Japan has won the last eight World Cups after finishing runner-up to the U.S. in the first two.
The AAGPBL and WPBL share a focus on marketing, albeit for different eras
Skirts were part of the uniform for AAGPBL players, and they were required to attend charm school. There was an emphasis on femininity and “ladylike” behavior, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The WPBL is all over social media, detailing the background of its players while looking to sell tickets and merchandise.
“We know this was true in the ‘40s and ’50s, that people tended then to follow the team because of the place, and then the players. Now they follow players, right? That’s what people do,” Heaphy said.
“So I think that issue of raising awareness, both leagues recognize that.”
Arthur Meyerhoff, a Chicago advertising executive, played a prominent role in the creation and operation of the AAGPBL.
“He was a marketing guy, and he knew that had to happen,” said Williams, a professor emeritus at Marshall University who is part of a WPBL advisory board with Heaphy. “He knew that there has to be an image, right?
"I mean, that’s typical of any kind of new endeavor. You have to put forth an image. And the image I hope people are seeing with the WPBL is that these are athletes. These are good athletes. They’re strong women. They’re talented and smart. And I think that’s the message.”
One of the biggest legacies of the AAGPBL is connected to what the women accomplished after their playing careers. Several of the women went to graduate school and earned advanced degrees. They took on prominent jobs while crediting the league for opening their eyes as to what was possible.
“The impact, the economic impact on those players and their families, they became doctors and lawyers and airplane pilots and teachers and you know things that they would (have) never had an opportunity to do,” Williams said.
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