SPRINGFIELD, ILL – When Kelsie Whitmore reflected on a question about “A League of Their Own” on Friday, she noted that while that has long been the backdrop of the women’s baseball conversation, the emergence of the Women’s Professional Baseball League is something else entirely.
“Three out of the six of us would not be in that league if we were playing back then,” she said. “So, because of color, ethnicity, and background, and that’s what’s so important about this league is it’s opening up all the backgrounds and cultures.”
Whitmore was alongside Los Angeles Queens players Ayami Sato and Mo’ne Davis as she said that, along with WPBL team captains Ashton Lansdell, Allie Schroeder and Denae Benites.
This weekend’s opening WPBL games will be the first in a professional women’s baseball league since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League ceased operations in 1954.
The first game is Saturday between the Queens and New York Heights at 4 p.m. ET.
The league kicks off during a boom in women’s sports investment between the growth of the WNBA, NWSL, PWHL, AUSL and several pro volleyball leagues.
But women’s baseball has often been excluded from the conversation as a fractured sport without a true pipeline. While softball leagues have popped up occasionally, women’s baseball hasn’t had the traction.
On Friday from Robin Roberts Field in Springfield, much of the talk was about dreams becoming real. But most of the players in the league have had their moments at the highest levels of women’s baseball.
The new league will be different because they have six weeks to play together, figure out the ideal lineups and find a way to win.
Some are still trying to figure out how to use their 15-player roster.
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“It’s professional baseball, so you got to make sure you’re putting out your best nine,” Boston manager Keith Foulke said. “We got a good group of athletes, and we’re excited to throw them out there on Sunday night.”
New York manager Rocky Henley is the lone bench boss with experience coaching women’s baseball and estimated she knew about 40 of the 60 players on site in Springfield.
That, she said, gives her “a leg up,” but that advantage is balanced out by the talent across the rosters.
“I’ve seen them play,” she said. “I know about them. I feel like I have a leg up. Although they have a lot of baseball experience, hundreds of games more than I. So in the long run, I think it’ll be even.”
Before the press conferences on Friday, players took in the field for the first time. Though it was covered by a tarp most of the day due to rain, San Francisco second baseman Amanda Gianelloni walked the warning track while talking to her Firebells teammates in the stands.
Davis did several media appearances from the first base dugout, just the second time she had been on the field where she will spend her next month-plus.
“We hear it all, but at the end of the day, our goal is not just to focus on history,” she told The IX Sports. “Our goal is to focus on the play of the field. We’re out there just trying to get hits. Some people might be trying to hit homers, whatever the case may be. Like our focus on playing good baseball and not the outside noise.”
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Davis is somewhat of an outsider when it comes to the league’s players. Because she was out of baseball for six years, she’s one of the few players who has little experience playing with the other WPBL athletes. This is also the first time she’s played with only women.
On the other end of the spectrum, Kelsie Whitmore – who has also played on men’s teams – has had multiple stints with the U.S. women’s national team, including last week when they went 5-0 in the World Cup qualifiers.
“A lot of us are kind of used to only seeing each other every here and there,” Whitmore said. “And I think the biggest thing that we do when that happens is just embrace the present, embrace the moments we have. I know every time we’re with each other, it’s like, okay, we don’t have much time, but like let’s embrace it, let’s do the best we can, and let’s enjoy it. And I think that’s what we’re most excited for for this league. This will be the longest time we all get to be with each other, and I think that’s super exciting.”
Queens manager Eric Young said he knows who his closer and starter will be on Saturday, and a leadoff hitter, but has more to figure out. Henley was the only manager who had her whole lineup figured out.
“The reason why I have my lineup already is because I know most of these women, and we’ve had some great practices these last four days,” she said. “It’s just all cumulated together to have a great start.”
This weekend won’t be the first time women’s baseball has been played professionally or even that all of these players are making their pro debuts, but it will be the most national attention on the women’s side of the sport in the modern era.
Whitmore said there was pressure to succeed. That’s just always part of a new league, and especially part of a women’s sports league.
Between press conferences on Friday, commissioner Justine Siegal noted that it was no longer about proving that “women’s baseball matters,” but that “women are ballplayers.”
