The inaugural season of the Women’s Pro Baseball League came to a close Tuesday night with Ayami Sato’s shutout of the San Francisco Firebells, which secured the league’s first championship for the Los Angeles Queens. For a little more than seven weeks, four teams played a total of 40 games in a single location, Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Ill., where 69 players, 12 coaches, and roughly a dozen umpires took the field in an effort to establish the first viable professional women’s baseball league in the United States in more than 70 years. To my eyes, that effort was a tremendous success.
The league was not without its faults, both on the field and in the board room, but in what was largely a proof-of-concept season, the WPBL did indeed prove that that there are enough talented female baseball players to comprise such a league, that their level of play is high, that their style of play is entertaining and that such a league can produce engaging stars, compelling games and engender a passionate and devoted fan base. All of the preceding has left everyone involved with the league — as a fan, a player, a coach, an executive, a broadcaster or even a reporter — wanting more.
“More” is about all we know about the potential second season of the WPBL right now, but those I have spoken to and heard speak about the league’s future seem universally confident that the 2027 WPBL season is going to happen. When I spoke to league commissioner Justine Siegal for this column four weeks ago, she said she was “very confident” that the league would return next year. As a guest in the ESPN broadcast booth during Game 2 of the Championship Series last Thursday, Siegal told on-field reporter AJ Andrews, “We’re very fortunate to have had such a successful season that we can now sort of pave our own path. And now it’s just about building strategically, so we’re here not just next year but for the next five, 10, 20, 30 years, and we’re here to stay.”
Help shape what’s next for The IX Sports! Take our short reader survey:
After Tuesday night’s Game 5, Firebells Amanda Gianelloni and Kelsey Whitmore and several members of the LA Queens spoke about looking forward to next season, though they admitted they had no idea what to expect in terms of the timing and structure of the 2027 season. Asked what specifically she was looking forward to next season, Gianelloni answered with the one other word most associated with the WPBL’s second season: “growth.”
Whitmore concurred, “I want this league to have more competition. I want more girls to know about it. I want girls to get paid more. I want more fans in the stands. … Yeah, growth. … Take it to the next level. … This is the perfect league, the perfect women, perfect staff, perfect ownership, perfect investors to be able to elevate this league.”
That hunger, on the part of everyone involved, should serve the league well.
As for specific ways the league might, and might not, change next year, one thing Siegal said to me in our earlier conversation was that that she “could confidently say that we are going to do more in the home cities we’re representing.” However, asked if they would be back in Springfield next year during Game 2, she said, “Anything’s possible,” before going on to praise the league’s reception in the Illinois capital.
There were logistical and financial reasons to play all of the league’s games in a single stadium this year. In addition to saving on travel — though the league did pay for travel to, accommodations in and food for all of its players in Springfield — it only required setting up shop in one place: one ballpark’s worth of signage, concessions, merchandise, ballpark and clubhouse staff, with the league and its broadcasts all working out of a single location rather than four. Still, I think the first and most obvious improvement the league should make next season is to get out of Springfield.
For one thing, this year the league attempted to sell 40 games to a metro area of roughly 200,000 people that had no inherent geographic rooting interest in any of the four clubs. Assuming an identical schedule next year, they could instead be trying to sell roughly 10 games to each of four metro areas comprised of more than 5 million people that do have an inherent geographic rooting interest. Doing that should not only sell more tickets at the ballpark, but could allow the league to expand its schedule beyond 15 games per team. (How about 20 games in each city, or roughly 25 including the postseason, for a 40-game season?) Doing so would also result in a larger number of individuals (as opposed to repeat customers) attending the games, which is how a league grows its fan base.
Similarly, the league should make it a priority to get its broadcasts out from behind the paywall. This year’s games were free on YouTube internationally — no small thing for a league that included multiple players from Japan, South Korea, Australia, Mexico, and Canada — but in the United States, the games were behind a paywall on ESPN Select (save for a select few games on the Scripps Sports Network). I felt like every time I told someone I was covering the WPBL, they were excited about tuning in until they learned they’d have to pay for a subscription service to do so.
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
The WPBL did a good job on social media this season, with Instagram and TikTok accounts and highlights packages on YouTube. Those seem to have gained the league and its players a solid online following, but this league needs sunlight to grow. Making the games more accessible at home to potential fans throughout the U.S. and at the ballpark to potential die-hards in the Boston, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles metro areas should be among the league’s top priorities for 2027.
Moving out of Springfield would also immediately improve the quality of play on the field. Robin Roberts Stadium and its turtleback field was a source of constant frustration for the players this season. Whether it was the stadium’s geographic orientation blinding players on the right side of the field as the sun set soon after the league’s 6 p.m. CT start times, the ballpark’s low lights blinding them on balls in the air after dark, or the sharply sloped field tripping up players just beyond the infield dirt or causing balls to roll away at speed when they got past the fielders around the perimeter, the ballpark was a major factor in the number of misplays we saw this season.
In the just-completed Championship Series, we saw Joely Leguizamon, one of the best defensive shortstops in the league, get hit in the face with a throw from the outfield because she lost it in the low lights, and one of the two runs that scored in the decisive Game 5 reached base when Gianelloni stumbled on that steep slope behind the infield dirt. In a league where the quality of play will continue to be scrutinized, the players shouldn’t be undermined by the very field on which they play.
There are other changes that I hoped the league would make in the near term that now I realize, having watched this season, will have to wait. As someone who never understood why women’s and men’s tennis matches consist of different numbers of sets, I was disappointed when I learned that the WPBL would play seven-inning games; baseball is a nine-inning game. However, the Women’s Baseball World Cup also plays just seven innings, and most of these players would be used to playing seven innings. Still, I thought expanding to nine innings would be an easy change to make for season two, until I came to understand the league’s lack of pitching depth.
Until the WPBL is able to sign and/or develop more pitching, it simply doesn’t have the arms to play nine innings, to forgo the automatic runner in extra innings (another item on my wishlist), or, likely, to play many more games per week than the three that were standard for its teams during the regular season this year. The Queens did manage to play eight games in 13 days in the postseason and win, thanks primarily to dominant pitching performances (in Game 1 of the semifinals and Games 1 and 5 of the Championship Series), so perhaps the league could get away with four games per team per week. But it’s not clear that, as constructed, even the Queens could have kept that up for a month or more.
My expectations were skewed by how many of the notable female baseball players over the last century were pitchers — from Jackie Mitchell and Babe Didrikson to Peanut Johnson, Ila Borders, Eri Yoshita (Japan’s “knuckleball princess”), Ayami Sato, Stacy Piagno and Kelsie Whitmore with the Sonoma Stompers, Genevieve Beacom in the Australian Baseball League, and Little Leaguers Mo’ne Davis, Chelsea Baker and Kinley Rasmus — but, in retrospect, it makes sense the aspect of baseball that is most different from softball, its style of pitching, would be where the WPBL’s talent ran thinnest. That’s not to say the WPBL lacked for talented pitchers, just that it lacked for sufficient depth at the position.
One major indicator of the league’s maturity will thus be the increase in the depth and quality of its pitching. That should, in turn, reduce its rate of run scoring (as should escaping Robin Roberts Field), and, hopefully, eventually, allow for nine-inning games, nearly everyday play, and, ideally, the removal of the automatic runner. Those are more likely to be long-term changes, however, and may need to wait until Rasmus and/or her peers graduate into the league, if not longer.
One change that the WPBL could make for 2027 would be to switch to wood bats. That’s largely an aesthetic change, but the crack of the bat is more authentically baseball than the ping of the metal and composite bats used by the league this year. One could argue that the power balance in the league was just right this year, and thus the league shouldn’t mess with the bats or the fences. I agree with the latter (for now; again, as the league matures, the fences may eventually move back), but the league was dominated by offense, so it shouldn’t hurt the game to switch to wood. The only good reason I can think of to stick with metal and composite bats is financial: wood breaks and needs to be replaced. Still, get these women some bat-company sponsorships, and that should take care of itself. Heck, Queens center fielder Mo’ne Davis already has a statue at the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory.
Two other changes that are necessary but may be difficult are the need for a proper spring training and better umpiring. This year, the WPBL effectively had no Spring Training. There were two exhibition games played in March and a few days of team practice before the league’s Opening Weekend, but nothing that would have allowed the players, and especially the pitchers, to get into proper regular season shape.
Rep The IX Sports at your next game!
Shop the logo collection or special “Women’s Sports are Front Page News” collection now on Shopify.
Siegal told the IX Sports that she would like to have a proper spring training next year but said that is complicated by the schedule of the World Cup, the finals of which will take place in Illinois in July 19-25 next year. Still, there’s no reason the WPBL couldn’t hold spring training for the rest of its players while allowing the World Cup players to leave for the tournament, just like Major League Baseball does for the World Baseball Classic. If the issue is that the league’s 17-player rosters would be too depleted to play exhibition games with those players gone, my counter argument would be that that situation could create opportunities for thus-far overlooked players to fill in and potentially impress their teams. Remember, the league drafted 120 players this year but only used 69 of them.
Speaking of the draft, Siegal also told The IX Sports that the WPBL’s players were signed to one-year contracts and would all become free agents at the end of the year, which means they all became free agents on Wednesday. However, several players in the wake of their postseason runs spoke about their bond with their 2026 teammates and their desire to continue to build those teams next season and beyond. Siegal is counting on that for at least some degree of continuity next season, though it remains to be seen how and to what degree the rosters might change. We’ll almost certainly see some new players emerge. Will rosters expand to accommodate them? Will we see trades once the players are re-signed? Will we see some players opt to switch teams, perhaps because of another team’s proximity to their job or school should they play in or near their home cities? That is all yet to be determined.
As for the umpires, replay technology will likely remain beyond the league’s budget for 2027 and perhaps beyond. This year’s broadcasts had a hard enough time following the action live, let alone providing relevant replays, in part because they were working with a seven-camera set-up (compared to the 20-plus cameras typically in use by the two teams’ broadcasts for a regular-season MLB game). The umpires themselves, like every one else from the players on down, had to juggle other commitments this season.
In our chat, Siegal mentioned that some umpires were unavailable in August due to their primary jobs in the Atlantic League. Indeed, we saw some of the more problematic umpires from August largely vanish from the league in September, including Cody Hawkins, who did not umpire another game after ejecting Val Perez in the Heights’ last regular-season game. Joelyn Pullano, who had a heavy workload in August and notably ejected Hunters manager Jemile Weeks, did not umpire a game after Aug. 30.
Still, the umpiring in the postseason was far from perfect, including an obvious blown call by Steve Berardino on a first-inning double play in Game 5 of the Championship Series (Skylar Kaplan was safe by a full step at first base but called out, ending the Firebells’ first offensive inning). Those things will happen in an environment without replay, even with the best umpires in the business, but the minimizing the bad calls should be a priority for the league.
Off the field, the league needs to improve the variety and availability of its merchandise, which was a big hit but difficult to get outside of Springfield, as the league struggled to keep online items in stock. That was arguably a good problem to have in year one, but lost sales are both lost revenue and lost word-of-mouth, as each lost sale is one less person (or one less day that a given person) will go out into the world wearing a WPBL conversation piece.
There are other inside-baseball issues that the league could stand to iron out or, more often, staff up, but I’ll stick to the public-facing ones here. None of this is meant as a condemnation of the league. As a first-year startup on a limited budget, I think the WPBL did its best and showed a willingness to adapt on the fly throughout the season. The most important thing, the product on the field, was the best part about the league, as it should have been. However, those “we’re new, we’re learning” excuses will fall increasingly flat with each coming season.
What will never fall flat, is what this league means to the women who play in it, to the women and girls who watch it and aspire to it, and to baseball fans of all genders, myself very much included, who have always believed that baseball is for everybody and every body. With that in mind, I want to leave you with some words from the players themselves — each of them civil-rights pioneers in their own right —about what this inaugural season has meant to them and why it’s so important to them that this league continues and succeeds.
For me, it has been a privilege and an honor to cover this pioneering league for The IX Sports this season. I’ve long hoped that, should a women’s professional baseball league ever emerge, I’d be able to do my part by covering it, and I’m amazed and delighted that it actually happened. Here’s to next season!
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
The below are from the postgame press conference after Tuesday night’s Game 5.
Amanda Gianelloni, Firebells: “It meant everything. I’ve been blessed to play at every single level, but up until now, I haven’t had the opportunity to play professionally. You work your whole life in order to be a professional, and so this season means everything to not only me but all of the rest of the girls. It’s fulfilling a dream.”
Kelsie Whitmore, Firebells: “I think we can all say that this was the most we’ve ever been able to get a true opportunity. Most of us have played in leagues with men and been the only female, and it’s been very difficult to get true opportunities to prove ourselves, that we belong on the field, and that we are capable of competing. And so, that we’ve had … practices all the time, being managed by a great staff, and then being able to have reps, in-game, live, consistent is huge. I feel like we’ve all learned so much about ourselves. We found, most importantly, a rhythm and a routine … We’ve learned so much, and our bodies have been through it, and it’s great, because I feel like there’s nothing we can’t handle. It’s been awesome to have this opportunity to have consistency on the field.”
Gianelloni: “Yeah, this is the most I’ve ever played consistently with other women, and it allows us to, like Kelsey said, catch a rhythm and a routine. It allows us to have more than eight at-bats a weekend, or a few plays in the field and then you have to go home because it’s just a tournament, things like that. And so it allows you to really work on your game and see more pitching. And the more pitching you see, the more you are successful, in my opinion. And the more you see balls hit live off of the bat, and different angles, and different hops, and different bounces, the better player you’re gonna be. So, the more reps, for me, was huge. You know, I haven’t played this long, this consistently since college and haven’t played this long and consistently with other women in baseball. So, this has been an amazing experience, and I’m just ready for next year.”
Gianelloni: “We stand on the shoulders of all the women that came before us that didn’t have this opportunity. We stand on the shoulders of all the women in the stands that were told no at some point in their lives, not just with sports, but just in general. And then we paved the way for all girls that come after us. This is so much bigger than baseball. I’ve been thanking all the fans, especially the women, that have been coming, because it’s not just a win for us on the field, it’s a win for them, because I’m sure, at some point in their life, they were told no, or they were told, ‘no, you can’t do that, you’re just a girl.’ And so I think this represents much more than baseball. This represents the glass ceilings, and the perseverance that women have, and all that we can achieve if we put our minds to it.”
Whitmore: “For any young girl that’s out there that has seen our league … there’s a place for you. Any young girl out there that wants to play baseball, there’s now a path. You don’t have to worry about creating that path. We all did that for you. … I haven’t heard anything about what’s happening next year, but I can sure say that I’m gonna do my best, and all of us are gonna do our best, to keep this rolling for as long as we can, until we have daughters one day.”
Gianelloni: “For any little girl, I always encourage them to not let the limits of the world, the limits of other people, or even sometimes the limits of your own mind, limit you from achieving your dreams. You can create your reality. Anything you see in the world, you can do 100%, and so not letting limitations really define your path, but letting the spirit of abundance, the spirit of possibility drive you, and to set that goal, and then walk all the way back to today and say, ‘what can I do today, this week, this month, and this year, in the next five years, to get to that goal?’ Anything is possible, it truly is. A lot of us have paved the way in so many ways and have shown girls that, hey, we didn’t have a path set out for us, we established that path, so anything is possible. We’re hoping that, with this league, that they can truly see themselves on this field one day.”
Whitmore: “If you told the little me that there would be a league here, I wouldn’t believe you. I’ve had a lot more noes in my life than yeses, and I’ve been shot down so many times, countless times, and I know so many other women in this league have also been told no, have been shot down, had no clue how to get anywhere.”
“I remember sending emails to every GM in the big leagues just to find a way, just to get opportunities, to throw a bullpen or go hit batting practice. I remember going to the Winter Meetings and showing up acting like I was there trying to get a coaching job, but really I was trying to … learn what a scout looks for in a player. I remember getting into those rooms, I found a way to get in those rooms. I picked their brain, and I did everything I could.”
“I’m just so thankful that this league is here, because it was all worth it. And all those moments that every female had to go through. That was behind the scenes, behind closed doors, the late hours, the working two jobs just so they could go and play, or playing for free because they just want to play the game, all those were so worth it. All those moments were small wins that led to where we are today. That is what this whole win is about, persevering through hardship and it all working out in the end.”
Whitmore: “I’ve never, ever, ever, ever, in my entire career playing baseball, other than on the National Team, have been able to actually grow friendships on the field when I’m playing. In the world of male-dominated baseball, I’ve just been so isolated, and so I feel … so much gratitude that we have this league and are able to just be here and play with other individuals who understand the journey and understand many of the struggles that we’ve all been through, and I think that’s what makes it so special.”
Ashton Lansdell, Queens: “I think all of us have had the feeling of being the only girl on the field. And that’s just something that I don’t think anyone understands but that one girl on the field. And the fact that we are all now here together, all girls on the field, it’s pretty surreal. And it’s the thing that we’ve all been waiting for, and we didn’t really think that it was ever gonna happen. … So many people just doubt and think it’s a joke that girls play baseball. I’m like, these games are good, they’re good games, they’re some damn good athletes, and that should not be slept on, that should not be thought twice about.
“We just want to play baseball. We just want to play the game we love. And the fact that we get to do that now as a professional career means the world to us, but means more to the generations to come. And to see what this league is gonna look like in the next 5 to 10 to 20-plus years, that’s gonna be the coolest thing out of all this. Winning the first championship, yeah, that’s cool, that’s great, that’s etched in the history books, but I wanna see where this is at, and what the LA Queens look like, 20 years down the road. I mean, it’s gonna be some MLB-type, high-level play. And I’m just so excited that we are here right now, but even more excited that we get to see the future for women’s baseball unfold. And it’s only the beginning of history. So, what we did was cool, but what’s to come is gonna be even cooler.”
Your business can reach women’s sports fans who share your passion!
Here at The IX Sports, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women’s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, you should reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com to discuss ways to work together in 2026.
Soccer: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer
Tennis: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Basketball: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Softball: Maren Angus-Coombs, @Maren-Angus, The IX Sports
Golf: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Hockey: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Gymnastics: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer
