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The Women’s Pro Baseball League opens its inaugural season Saturday in Springfield, Illinois, with the New York Heights taking on the Los Angeles Queens at Robin Roberts Stadium, a 5,200-seat ballpark that has operated since 1925. The Boston Hunters and San Francisco Firebells will play their opening contests the following day, with each team fielding 15 active players for seven-inning games. Weather permitting, the matchups will launch what organizers hope becomes a sustainable professional league for women’s baseball.
Alli Schroder, a player in the new league, credited the 1992 film “A League of Their Own” — which dramatized the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that operated from 1943 to 1954 — with inspiring her childhood dreams of professional competition. “Even though there wasn’t a platform for us to play professional baseball when I was growing up, playing Little League and youth baseball, like there was a vision that there could be, and we’re here now,” Schroder said.
The WPBL was co-founded by Justine Siegal, who made history in 2015 by becoming the first woman to serve as a coach for an MLB team when she joined the Oakland Athletics. The timing capitalizes on surging fan interest in women’s professional sports across the country. Each team will play 15 regular-season games at the Springfield venue, with playoffs to follow.
Japanese right-hander Ayami Sato, a top pitcher for the New York Heights, expressed enthusiasm about competing against former teammates and international rivals now assembled in the professional league. Los Angeles infielder Ashton Lansdell articulated the players’ ambitious vision for the circuit. “We want to make this thing last forever and ever. We want this to become the MLB of women’s baseball,” Lansdell said.
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