FORT MYERS, Fla. — Sabrina Robinson, a switch-hitting first baseman with the Women’s Pro Baseball League, paused on the outskirts of Field 6 at the Boston Red Sox training facility and took in the full scene in front of her on day one of WPBL spring training last week.
Basketball Insider
(Welcome to a special Baseball Insider edition of The IX Sports Insiders, presented by The BIG EAST Conference. We’ll be back next week with basketball, of course. But today is about the history being made in the WPBL. Come experience it with me.)
Robinson, like every single player in the WPBL, worked nonstop to build her skills for a professional career that didn’t exist yet, taking swings in the batting cages, fielding ground ball after ground ball, anywhere she could train. Robinson, like Abraham Lincoln in his famous quote, was prepared in case her chance would come.
Now it has. She watched the Red Sox minor leaguers passing her by en route to a different back field. “It’s crazy,” she marveled out loud, and walked into the Field 6 first base dugout. Her dugout.
On a windswept Wednesday afternoon, the sheer scale of how quickly the WPBL has turned a combination of Keith Stein’s frustration about the lack of women’s pro baseball and the life’s work of Justine Siegal, into a viable league set to begin play less than two years after the co-founders first spoke was on full display. So, too, were the many efforts to build that scaffolding, in ways large and small.
Things as simple as signage required league volunteers to zip-tie WPBL banners to the metal screens lining Field 6, sandbagging the stand-up signs featuring photos of signature stars like Kelsie Whitmore and Mo’ne Davis to keep them standing.
Players moved to their positions for different drills across the field, with former major leaguers Jemile Weeks, Keith Foulke and Doug Mientkiewicz on hand to run the drills. Pitchers walked down the left field line and threw bullpens, two at a time, Whitmore and the ageless Meggie Meidlinger first.
The shape of the skillsets could be discerned immediately. At first base, Robinson, signed by Boston, was seemingly everywhere, diving stops, turning the 3-6-3 double play without any extra movements, firing across the diamond to show off her throwing arm as well, a Keith Hernandez for the new circuit. (We’ll still need the comps to men’s players for now — the WPBL’s continued viability means that will soon change.)
Next to her, alternating on grounders, was Canadian slugger and San Francisco signee Andréanne Leblanc, the RBI leader in the 2024 Women’s Baseball World Cup. She took a more “conservative” approach to fielding the position, as she put it, but showed me that despite her 5’6 frame, her wingspan allows her to reach everything, she said as she let her arms spread wide.
When the pair took their turns in the cage, more of their tools turned into skills before our eyes. I’ve seen Robinson live many times before, so I was not surprised to see her lash one line drive after another into the gap. It is a reasonable assumption that she will finish among the league leaders in doubles this season.
But Leblanc? The ball jumps off of her bat and she launched bomb after bomb, hitting left, then right — despite coming to switch-hitting only as a result of a shoulder injury, she’s now an even bigger power threat from her adopted left side.
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Meanwhile, at the hot corner, Elodie Ciamarro snagged one line drive after another. Following a particularly tough backhand grab on one hop, Foulke looked over and said sarcastically, “So you’re not a third baseman, huh?” Without missing a beat, Ciamarro responded enthusiastically, “I’m a catcher!”
That won’t stop her from helping her team anywhere they need her — catching, second base, third base. On a roster with first-round pick Danae Benites and phenom Alyssa Zettlemoyer, New York has an embarrassment of riches behind the plate.
“It was hard because I haven’t been playing third base,” Ciamarro told me after practice on March 18. “I have to adjust my arm because usually my only throws that I do are to second base as a catcher. So I’d say, once I get adjusted, I’m pretty good. It’s the same ground balls, wherever you are on the field, it’s the same ground.”
By the end of the practice session, newcomers to the women’s baseball space, like Foulke, came away impressed.
“There’s a lot of talent,” Foulke said as the players packed up Wednesday afternoon. “But doing it on the field — it doesn’t matter what level you play at. Performing on the field is always the hardest thing.”
The final WPBL player still on the field Wednesday afternoon was Whitmore, recording her own social media content before hitting the showers. Watch Five At The IX with Whitmore for more about how she felt in that moment.
From there, it was back to the hotel for a quick dinner, followed by an in-person event, hosted by WPBL player Amanda Gianelloni, called “Group Chat Live.” Gianelloni was joined by Whitmore, Davis and Ashton Lansdell. In all of these cases, an animating principle that augurs well for the league was on display. The very same players who built their baseball skills to a professional level are also experts at telling their stories. For a league whose Year 1 must be as much a branding exercise as a viable baseball product, this is vital.
Day 2: ‘The foundation has been set’
A small group of WPBL employees, investors and a handful of reporters gathered in one of the banquet rooms of the host hotel to hear a pair of women, sitting on elevated chairs, hold a press conference.
On the left? Mo’ne Davis, a young woman who has spent half her life most closely identified as a baseball player. Only now is she getting the chance to earn a living by playing the game.
On the right? Justine Siegal, who has devoted her entire adult life to creating opportunities for people like Mo’ne Davis. It was striking to hear Siegal talk about the timelines as she accepted, publicly, the position of commissioner, the only logical choice for the role.
“Originally, I was here for Mo’ne’s generation when I started 25 years ago,” Siegal said. “And now I’m here also for the next.”
Siegal is not a gregarious, backslapping sort of commissioner. But she knows the space better than anyone and cares deeply about it. (This is the part where I ask you whether Rob Manfred or Roger Goodell are known for their personal appeal, or if we are once again applying a different standard to women in sports league leadership by even asking the question.)
Siegal understands, by virtue of her deep roots in the game, that much of the task ahead isn’t about unearthing talent, but instead to make sure a critical mass of people who will support the league understand just how impressive the players already are.
“The foundation has been set by all of the women been playing baseball since — we’ve been playing baseball before women had a right to vote,” Siegal said. “So we are standing on the shoulders of those before us, including the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. My nonprofit that I founded, Baseball For All, which has girls playing baseball all around the country. Now, for example, at our national tournament, we have 700 girls representing five countries who are playing baseball. So you have this pipeline already in place of girls playing. You have 25 countries with national teams. There is a Women’s World Cup. So for us, it’s now about taking the best players to help spread the message around the world that we are not a fringe athlete.”
Siegal explained to me when we sat and chatted after the press conference that the events in the weeks ahead would reinforce this message, simply by showing up. We’ll be seeing WPBL players taking batting practice and throwing out the first pitch at places like Yankee Stadium. We’ll see games between WPBL teams on tour around the country as well.
The process of figuring out what that looks like was still a work in progress, back at Field Six on Thursday afternoon.
Can we sell merch? No, not here, we’re a third-party vendor. Can we mic up the players? Yes, anyone you like, music to the ears of the production team the league has hired, led by longtime television producer Mike Rotman, who is also an investor in the league. That bit of synergy is vital on two fronts: the televised product, whoever ends up purchasing the rights, will look major league. And someone who understands the visuals and their import as well as Rotman will not only guarantee it, he’s already come to understand just how incredible the product he’s spotlighting will be — hence the investment.
That certainty was a hallmark of the many investors I spoke with during the Fort Myers event. Mina Kim, who grew up playing multiple sports in Rockville, Md., spent 14 years on Wall Street and built out the business behind the fitness studios OrangeTheory, understands the long runway necessary for the WPBL. But she also knows a great, nascent business when she sees one.
“You could feel that same excitement, energy and vibe, and also listening to the girls last night about how it’s more than baseball to them, and it’s affirmation of how this is something that’s really going to change their lives,” Kim told me as we sat in the third base bleachers of Field Six and watched the game action on Thursday. “And millions of girls’ lives who are growing up right now will see this on TV and see that it’s possible. And that part is truly exciting.
“You want to be able to invest in something that is going to make a lasting impact on people’s lives. I think that’s this energy right now. And the great thing about women’s sports is also that it’s totally uncorrelated to the markets, so it’s a different category. It’s proven to be a real asset.”
Just then, Alyssa Zettlemoyer uncorked a throw to nail a would-be basestealer at second base, drawing the attention of the crowd. “She’s a high school senior,” Siegal said matter-of-factly to me.
Every inning provided the elements that sports fans would call highlights and the many investors on hand — Stein told me the league was oversubscribed by this round, and it was impossible to ignore how these same investors were both wealthy and women’s sports lifers, two vital data points for the new league as it needs both capital for today and patience heading into tomorrow.
A high-level showdown between Japanese ace Ayami Sato on the mound and Whitmore at the plate, culminating in a Whitmore infield hit. (Whitmore can do everything on a baseball field, throws five pitches for strikes, plays elite outfield defense when she isn’t pitching, five tools. She’s the early favorite to win MVP honors.) One inning ended with a Robinson stretch to grab an infield throw to first in the dirt, another from Leblanc reaching wide to save an errant toss across the infield.
When the game ended, Meidlinger deployed her veteran leadership, bringing the players to left field to deliver a final message.
“Carry yourself like pros,” she told the group. “It’s a big thing and the little things. Now let’s go make our dreams come true.”
The players posed for photos. Then the coaches joined them for a second round. Then the investors, too, and the group swelled noticeably.
From there, it was a long walk over to the main field at Jetblue Stadium to greet fans, most of whom were simultaneously delighted to meet WPBL players and find out about the league’s existence at once.
Finally, those attending the WPBL spring training were escorted onto the field. They spent time speaking with Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Wally the Green Monster. Davis threw out the first pitch. More than 9,000 baseball fans on hand learned about the existence of the WPBL.
The remaining players sat in section 210, watching the Red Sox face the Twins, before gathering along the first base concourse to say their goodbyes as the game neared its end. It is the life every women’s baseball player knows, the small circle, the familiar faces, the disparate destinations.
But this time was different. They’ve prepared. And their chance has come.
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