Yesterday was International Wombat Day. That fact creates two questions:
- What did you do to celebrate?
- Who comes up with these sorts of ideas?
Starting in 2026, there will be another attempt to create a sustainable professional baseball league for women. This has been tried at least twice in the past with the first entity – – the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) – – serving as the basis for the movie A League of Their Own. That league existed in the 1940s and lasted until 1954. Branch Rickey was part of the effort to found and run the league which had as many as 15 teams participating. During the existence of the AAGPBL, there was a “rival women’s league” – – the National Girl’s Baseball League (NGPL)- – and those leagues had a modicum of popularity and visibility. There was involvement of well-known sports figures in those leagues; Jimmy Foxx managed a team in the AAGPBL and Red Grange was the overseer for the NGPL for a while.
The rise of television and televised MLB games in the 1950s basically put the women’s leagues out of business, and women’s professional baseball was dormant until the 1980s. In the late 80s, a small women’s league was formed – – the Ladies Professional Baseball League (LPBL) – – which was much closer to a barnstorming situation than a stable league organization. It lasted about a year and went quietly into the night.
Next year, there will be another foray into the field of women’s professional baseball. The Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL) will field four teams next year (New York, Boston, LA and San Francisco). That is a bold strategy in putting teams into places where there will be stiff competition for attention from well-established MLB franchises. However, the previous “strategy” of fielding teams like the South Bend Blue Sox and/or the Rockford Peaches did not work. The announcement that the league exists said that the league seeks an international footprint; that seemed like an over-reach to me until I learned that the league held tryouts over the summer here in the DC area and more than 600 women from ten countries were there to try out. I must admit that I was unaware that women’s baseball was a big deal here in the US let alone in ten countries.
About ten years ago, Mo’ne Davis was the winning pitcher in a Little League World Series game against boys. That was a first and that gave her plenty of notoriety at the time. Mo’ne Davis (now 24 years old) is slated to be part of the WPBL next year. It never hurts for a new league to have a recognizable figure or two as it launches. The league will hold a draft next month and the league says it will have Spring Training, a regular season, an All-Star Game, and playoffs right out of the gate.
From the WPBL website, here is thumbnail sketch of Season One for the league:
- The inaugural season will be approximately 7 weeks in total: 4 weeks of regular season play, 1 week of all-star competition, and 2 weeks of playoffs.
- Games will be played from Thursday to Sunday with each team playing 2 games per week.
- The league will begin in May 2026. There will be a 4-day training period prior to the regular season; players are expected to get into regular season shape on their own prior to the season.
For new start-up leagues, there is always the question of financing. So, here is some more info from the league organizers:
- Players will be paid per game at a rate determined by their selection order in the draft.
- Players will receive a portion of the revenue share from league sponsorship. [Aside: I must admit that I do not understand what that means.]
- Housing will be provided for all players.
- Some players, with extra payment, will participate in grassroots efforts, clinics, media days, etc. on off days when there are no games scheduled.
This effort is a bold one. Competing head-to-head with the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Giants, Dodgers and Angels for attention seems difficult to me. However, the organizers seem to have a plan and a structure in mind that differentiates the WPBL from MLB in ways other than gender. Maybe this one will work …
Finally, this thought from Jeff Bezos probably resonates with the founders and architects of the new WPBL:
“I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………