On Aug. 27, 18-year-old Addisyn Baird was in Hartford, Connecticut, preparing to play in a hockey tournament when she received a life-changing phone call.
The call was from Justine Siegal, commissioner of the Women's Pro Baseball League (WPBL). The Los Angeles Queens needed another player after one of their outfielders left to play for Curaçao's national team and the team wanted to sign Baird as a replacement for the remainder of the season.
"How fast can you get here?" Siegal asked.
The next morning, Baird played in one hockey game. Then she and her dad jumped in the car and drove more than 20 hours to Springfield, Illinois, where the WPBL plays all its games. On Sept. 3, Baird made her professional debut for the Queens, whose roster includes former Little League World Series phenom Mo'ne Davis.
Baird is the only current high school student playing in the inaugural season of the WPBL, which launched in August with four teams. The WPBL playoffs are underway this month, with two best-of-three semifinal series preceding a best-of-five championship series scheduled to begin Sept. 16.

#wpbl #series #sept #call

When Ayami Sato takes the mound as the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Queens on Saturday, it will be the culmination of a professional career that has spanned 16 years and three countries. The right-handed hurler is largely considered the best pitcher in the history of women's baseball. She has the awards and experience to prove it, and now she's taking on America when she makes her debut in the Women's Professional Baseball League, the first pro women's baseball league in the United States since the 1950s.
Even though most Americans tuning into the WPBL may not have heard of her, Sato's resume speaks for itself. Sato's fastball has been clocked at nearly 80mph and her curveball has a devastating spin rate that is higher than many Major League Baseball pitchers. As a member of the ****** an National Team since 2010, Sato has won six gold medals. She is the only player in Women's Baseball World Cup history to win three consecutive MVP awards. As a member of the now-defunct ****** an's Women's Baseball League, Sato led the league in strikeouts in three of the last four seasons. And most recently, in 2024 she became the first woman to play pro baseball in Canada as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Intercounty Baseball League.
Now, she is bringing her talent to the US and the WPBL. "This is a brand new league for all of us," Sato tells the Guardian through a translator. "So I also want to approach it with the mindset of a rookie –staying curious, paying attention to everything around me, and embracing this new challenge with an open mind."
The league will play all its games in a centralized location for its first season, at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois. There are four teams – the Queens, the New York Heights, the San Francisco Firebells and the Boston Hunters. And the best players from all over the world will take the field together for the first time as one league, including at least nine players from the US women's national baseball team. On the Queens, Sato will play alongside USA star third baseman Ashton Lansdell and Little League World Series star Mo'ne Davis.
WPBL co-founder and commissioner Justine Seigel says it was always the plan to recruit internationally for the league. "We want many of the best players, and to have many of the best players, you have to go out into the world and find the best shortstop in Venezuela, and who's pitching in ****** an," Seigel says. "It's also fun because baseball is baseball, but it's also got its own little nuances country-to-country, and it's kind of fun to see in a game, as well."

#Baseball #league

CHICAGO (AP) — The nation's first women's professional baseball league in nearly 30 years is about to embark on its inaugural season in what marks a major milestone in the scattered history of the sport in the United States.
The Women's Pro Baseball League is also part of a timeline that goes back to the very beginning of the sport.
"Women have always been part of this game," said Kat Williams, the chief executive officer of the International Women's Baseball Center. "We've always played, we've always umpired, we've always coached. And in some of the earliest references in the 17th century, the earliest references to something like a game of baseball, it was women that were playing it."
Next up is the WPBL, which plays its first game Saturday. The league has four teams — New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco — for its first year, but the 15 regular-season games for each club and the playoffs will be held at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois. The ballpark has a seating capacity of 5,200, and Springfield hosted one of the earliest paid women's games when the Blondes faced the Brunettes on Sept. 11, 1875.
Kelsie Whitmore, Mo'ne Davis and Ayami Sato are among the marquee names expected to play in the league's first season. Each team will have 15 active players for the seven-inning games.

#Baseball #we 've #games #springfield

The inaugural season of the Women's Pro Baseball League is nearly here.
The first professional women's baseball league in the United States since the 1950s will throw its first pitch on Saturday, Aug. 1, at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois.
It kicks off nearly two months of play for the WPBL, with a five-week regular season followed by a championship series.
The best players in the world are among the four teams in the league, which held a draft earlier this year.
The league's full schedule, which runs primarily Wednesday-Sunday each week, along with all players on the four teams, is below.

#league #players #four #united

After a 72-year wait, women's professional baseball is back.
The Women's Professional Baseball League will launch Aug. 1, 2026, marking the first pro league since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — immortalized in A League of Their Own — folded in 1954.
Before opening day arrives, Stockton will get an early look.
The WPBL's Countdown Tour comes to Banner Island Ballpark on Thursday, July 2, from 5-8:30 p.m., bringing many of the nation's top female players together ahead of the inaugural season.
The event begins at 5 p.m. with on-field workouts led by accomplished baseball leaders Alex Hugo , Bree Nasti , Rocky Henley and Tamara Holmes . At 7:30 p.m., fans are invited onto the field for the WPBL FanFest, where they can meet players, collect autographs and take photos.

WPBL draft: Kelsie Whitmore goes No. 1; Mo'Ne Davis to LA
USA TODAY Sports

Kelsie Whitmore became the first 1-1 selection, while Mo'Ne Davis heard her name called just nine picks later as the Women's Pro Baseball League's inaugural draft populated four teams in advance of its 2026 debut season.
The Nov. 20 player selection reveal illustrated just how much the game has thrived globally.
Five countries – the USA, Canada, ***** an, South Korea and the Dominican Republic – were represented in the first nine picks, as Whitmore's selection by the San Francisco franchise was followed by Los Ang