This is way, way, way overdue. The Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) announced that it plans to play during the summer of 2026.
League founder Justine Siegal, the first woman coach employed by a Major League Baseball team, and lawyer Keith Steinco World Series-winning manager Cito Gaston and Japan Women’s Baseball League pitcher Ayami Sato to join them in the venture. Good.
Ever since the Penny Marshall-directed film “A League of Their Own,” based on the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which operated from 1943 to 1954. I have wondered why women haven’t had a professional baseball league since then. It is not a sport that requires great strength or size. Unlike basketball or football, I could conceive of an occasional female player making it to the major leagues, especially pitchers.
The problem has always been that talented female Little League players get redirected into softball because that’s the presumed path. There are no college women’s baseball teams; hardball has been a dead end for women. Maybe not any more.
WPBL needs to land a national television deal ahead of its inaugural season to be viable: I think that this can happen. (Suggestion: It should talk Tom Hanks into managing one of the teams.) The league intends to have a full season, playoffs and a championship, with six teams initially participating. If there is one in the Baltimore-Washington area, I’ll be in the stands.
“The Women’s Pro Baseball League is here for all the girls and women who dream of a place to showcase their talents and play the game they love,” Siegal said in the WPBL’s press relaese.“We have been waiting over 70 years for a professional baseball league we can call our own. Our time is now.”
Take THAT, “Handmaiden’s Tale”!
Ethics Alarms 
I can see women’s professional baseball becoming popular, so long as they don’t use the WNBA as a model. I wish them well.
Are they going to allow “transgender women” to play? Might end up stocked with guys who flunk out of the minors.
I can’t see women ever pitching in the majors. MLB pitchers are all behemoths these days. Plus, seriously, aren’t women’s arms and elbows different due to the width of their hips? Isn’t there something to “You throw like a girl?”
My concern is that unless they have colorful characters like the movie then this could end up like women’s basketball.
So there has been and annual “Battle of the Sexes” game in New Britain, CT, for several years, between an independent (now summer college) league baseball team, and a semi-pro softball team from Stratford.
The male team plays softball, and shuffles it’s defensive players (infielders in the outfield, third baseman on the mound, etc). The women’s team still only won once in this series.
This isn’t to disparage or discourage women’s baseball, just to note the physical and genetics differences are still a big factor.
I’m all for it with two provisos: 1) only biological women can participate, and 2) please, PLEASE, don’t make the ladies wear dresses!!
Bikinis are the right choice. Definitely bikinis.
Until tthe trannies start demanding their place on the teams…..
Sounds like a great idea. Let’s hope it gets done right.