Over the past weekend, a significant moment in sports history happened. For the first time in nearly 70 years, there was a professional women’s baseball league. The current roster is made up of four teams who represent a traditional east versus west dynamic that is presumably going to expand in the years to come. With the rise of organizations like AUSL (softball) and LOVB (volleyball), WPBL is the latest organization presenting a bright future for women’s sports. Baked into their marketing is a sense of legacy with many optimistically believing this will be encouraging the next generation to take up their bats and swing, to no longer see the phrase “You play ball like a girl” as a pejorative. Excitement couldn’t be higher and, thankfully, the inaugural weekend proved to be a major hit.
Tickets were sold out for the opening day between The Los Angeles Queens and The New York Heights. While the names sound superfluous on paper, anyone tuning into the ESPN+ broadcast would be immediately greeted with a primer on the names’ significance. Like The San Francisco Firebells, the moniker is tied to noteworthy women whose accomplishments are highlighted by activism and self-sacrifice. Efforts to make the team names more than regional novelties were already a fantastic start, but the way that they incorporated the years in between was a firm announcement that this would always be part of their brand.
Even with the promise of starting a new era for women’s baseball, they made sure to walk out onto the field during the pregame ceremony while highlighting the athletes from yesteryear. Key among these players was Maybelle Blair, 99, who was part of the organization’s preliminary influence The All-American Girl’s Professional Baseball League, which reached popularity during World War II and was the primary subject of the drama A League of Their Own (1992). Despite being in a wheelchair with four broken ribs, she embodied the hope for the future by praising the various athletes over the two games, even providing colorful interviews for why baseball was an essential part of her life. She has said to befriend many of the players and, so far, has been one of the most noteworthy cheerleaders – an honor really only surpassed by the comical mascot reimagining that finds her doing backflips and performing every trick she likely executed in her agile youth.
As much as this is about a look forward, Maybelle has become an early example of why the heart of the sport endures. For decades in between AGPBL and WPBL, girls were the exception to the squad, having to play among boys who had easier pipelines to careers. While softball has existed as the alternative, it’s easy to understand their delineation as sports with different approaches. Still, in a time when there are leagues for women’s volleyball, soccer, and basketball, why has it taken so long to get a group together? Many of the players may come from minor leagues or, in some cases, even the co-ed groups of Banana Ball, but there was a need to prove themselves in the sport they loved and not some variant that, to put it simply, was never the same thing and may ruffle some feathers if suggested as such.
Despite teams ranging from coastal cities, the current WPBL season is scheduled to take place in Springfield, IL at Robin Roberts Stadium. The four teams will play 30 games total, including playoffs and an eventual crowned inaugural season champion. It may not seem like much, especially when there’s not enough for a quaint Top 5, but the effort to build a league has started on a strong note. There’s already a proof of concept, and as anyone who watched the games will acknowledge, it’s off to a pretty solid start.
Much like the WNBA, it seems like sports leagues can’t help but begin things with the big market showdowns. Los Angeles played New York in the opening game following over an hour of rain delays that caused the game to end roughly five hours after it started. While the average baseball fan knows to expect anything, it’s a testament to their patience and curiosity that they made it to the end, ready to cheer on the first winner. While the announcers may have milked the “first accomplishment” narrative a tad too much, they can be forgiven for enthusiastically discovering the potential alongside the audience, unsure of who would be the superior teams, let alone whether an ongoing rainstorm would ultimately shut things down.
Many things could be said about game one, but the one thing that couldn’t was that it ended on a damp note. Yes, it poured mightily until the last pitch. While the adjusted seven-inning structure was allowed to conclude after the fourth, it was a rule not enforced on this occasion… and thank heavens. Outside of the uncertainty of an unfinished game, L.A. vs. N.Y. was everything that an introduction should have. Along with seeing how every player worked together, it was a chance to give in to the suspense of the sport, where the unexpected comeback could shift the outcome mightily. Had the story concluded after the fourth, it’s likely that history books would look different.
With all four teams present for opening weekend, the two not playing interacted with fans and took account of their upcoming rivals. Meanwhile, the field was full of stiff competition that started things off on the most desired of notes, which is both teams landing two runs in their first innings at bat. The game may have varied from there, but it established a sense of even-footed competition which, despite the faulty weather that might’ve impacted outfield efforts, suggested that these players from across the globe with their own accolades to show for themselves were going to play until the bitter end.
Yes, baseball is a game of highs and lows. There’s a good chance that the outcome could’ve been underwhelming. Unless you’re rooting for The Heights in game one, it was looking like one of those types of games, decided midway through despite valiant efforts. Every time The Queens scored two runs, The Heights had a bigger response, and so on.
Then, in a moment that’s borderline cinematic, The Queens were up at bat in the top of the seventh. Strike one. Strike two. Given that they were down by two and barely had anything in place for reassurance, it was easy to assume that this was the end. Instead, by the miracle that is baseball, The Queens scored two and tied the game at eight. While this would be enough to goad The Heights into a response, it turned out that they weren’t done. Before that final strike could cross the mound, there were two more runs accounted for, of which New York didn’t have a response.
The common notion from almost everyone in the media at WPBL (at least from the ESPN+ broadcast) was the importance of proving that women were just as adept at playing baseball as men were. The airtime schedule was overpacked with examples of this from numerous MLB teams, but that doesn’t stop those who love competition from getting their money’s worth. Despite the insistence on everything being a historic moment to the point post-game interviews asked players how they felt the night would be remembered, anyone who likes baseball regardless of larger parameters will have gotten their money’s worth. It’s unclear what the larger legacy will be, but for now it’s one full of beautiful, uncertain hope.
Even if the same outcome couldn’t be prescribed to game two between The Firebells and The Boston Hunters, there is still the recognition of talent that could improve as the season progresses. Of the four teams, Boston might’ve been the least confident in their early run. Maybe it’s just that The Firebells, led by number one draft pick Kelsie Mitchell, put up a merciless fight that earned them the weekend high of 11 runs against 3. It could also be that Boston simply needed to find their footing more, especially with the outfield dropping many balls that would’ve guaranteed a smaller margin of loss. Even so, no team performed a perfect game. Everyone fumbled enough to keep things exciting or, if nothing else, room for improvement.
That may be the most important thing to consider in the larger picture. It’s easy to wish that everyone was a Grade A champion on the first day, but it also ignores the effort of learning to cooperate as a team. I may criticize Boston for their shortcomings, but I’m not above believing that they’ll find a groove after settling into their lineup and finding a place for everybody. So far, San Francisco seems to be the closest to a brickhouse, with Los Angeles, while being the bigger market, having a scrappier potential to be the California upset.
Given that many attendees were said to have been there to support various players, it’s easy to see this as more than the novelty of women’s baseball. There are those who followed Mitchell from The Savannah Bananas, who have seen the players from their different countries of origin. This may be chapter one of WPBL, but it’s a continuation of careers that have flourished outside the traditional and professional markets that overshadowed them. As many reporters would suggest, they were just waiting for their moment to shine, and hopefully this will have a long and bright future.
If there’s any doubt to be faced in imagining a first-year league with four teams to last, I encourage you to consider where The WNBA has gone since 1997. There have been highs and lows with many criticisms as well as loyal fans. However, this past summer marked the 30th anniversary of the first game between The Los Angeles Sparks and The New York Liberty. Outside of the name recognition, the game featured many inaugural players walking out to an adoring crowd (mostly during halftime) while they reflected on a larger history.
There’s no doubt that some people assumed The WNBA wouldn’t last long, yet they had decades of players who defined the franchise and gave it meaning. For those who still find value in the sport, it was an emotional moment that proved not only how rock-solid the league was, but that it could continue to endure and build. In a time when Caitlin Clark has brought a new audience in, it’s easy to assume now, as WPBL reaches only its third day of the season, that one day these players will walk out onto a field and be given an ovation for helping to prove that the league was capable of flourishing. For now, it’s what seeing the Maybelle mascot represents in the larger scheme. It’s goofy and eccentric, but it’s also proof that history has these players’ back.
Who knows where the next decade will go or how many teams will become the new average. With many interviewees from the crowd sending passionate messages to the organization to send a team to someplace like Philly, it’s safe to say that there is interest not only in Illinois, but across this great country. I am not personally suggesting that I will be watching every game while leaning forward and expecting a sacrifice bunt to save the game. I’ll miss a few, no question. However, I love getting the chance to see where the heart of every team is at and, more importantly, how invested the crowd was in forming a tradition alongside them, where every foul ball was a moment to celebrate the catcher. Sure, the novelty may wear off of the new league smell, but hopefully it will only grow into something more special, more pronounced, and successful. If not, we already got two really good games of baseball. Tune in, because there are only 28 more games to go!
Comments
Post a Comment