Written by Caroline Fitzgerald

 

When I was seven years old, my parents signed my brother and me up for our first baseball team. At the time, there weren’t any girls’ teams in the area, so I played in the boys league. At our first game, the boys on the other team immediately started teasing me: “Girls can’t play baseball.”

 

I remember being genuinely confused: Why did being a girl mean I didn’t belong?

 

When we took the field in the first inning, I was determined to prove those boys wrong. Coincidentally, the first three batters on the other team all hit ground balls directly to me, which I cleanly fielded to throw them all out at first base. 

 

The “girls can’t play baseball” chants quieted down very quickly after that. 

 

At the age of seven, I certainly didn’t know words like sexism, feminism, or equity yet, but I remember thinking: Never again is someone going to tell me I can’t do something – especially in sports – because I’m a girl.

 

That experience is one of the reasons the arrival of the Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL) feels so significant to me.

 

ENTER THE WOMEN'S PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE

For the first time in more than 70 years, women have a professional baseball league in the United States.

 

Women have been playing baseball for generations, with perhaps the most famous chapter coming during World War II with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League – AKA, the league that inspired the movie, A League of Their Own. The AAGPBL operated from 1943 to 1954, but when the league disappeared, so did the professional pathway for women baseball players.

 

The popularity of A League of Their Own alone should have been enough to demonstrate the appetite for women’s baseball. More than three decades after its release, it remains the highest-grossing baseball movie ever, generating more than $100 million at the box office. Of the 20 highest-grossing baseball movies, it is both the top movie on the list and the only one centered on women.

 

And yet, it still took decades for another professional women’s baseball league to emerge in the U.S.

 

Even without a professional league, generations of girls continued to play and make an impact in baseball. Now, thanks to the WPBL, there is finally a professional pathway that allows women to pursue the sport all the way to its highest level.

Because of the WPBL, 60 women can now officially call themselves professional baseball players. The league’s inaugural season kicked off this summer with four teams – the New York Heights, Boston Hunters, Los Angeles Queens, and San Francisco Firebells – with 15 players on each roster. 

 

Even the team names reflect the significance of this moment. Rather than choosing generic mascots and team names, each of the WPBL’s inaugural teams is named in honor of a trailblazing woman who challenged expectations and opened doors for the women who came after her.

 

The New York Heights honor Dorothy Irene Height, the legendary civil and women’s rights leader. The San Francisco Firebells take inspiration from Lillie Hitchcock Coit, known as “Firebelle,” who became an enduring symbol of civic pride in San Francisco. The Los Angeles Queens honor Lizzie Murphy, the “Queen of the Diamond” and the first woman to play against Major League players. Finally, the Boston Hunters are named for Harriot K. Hunt, a pioneering physician and activist who challenged barriers facing women in medicine.

 

There’s something especially fitting about a league creating a new pathway for women athletes while naming its teams after women who created pathways of their own.

 

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR WOMEN'S BASEBALL

From a business perspective, investors should be excited about all the WPBL has to offer – and the early results the league is driving in its inaugural season. 

 

The WPBL launched with significant infrastructure already in place, including national media distribution deals with ESPN and Scripps and founding sponsors that include Horace Mann, DICK’S Sporting Goods, and New Era. But just as importantly, the league is already showing signs that fans are responding.

 

Per Sports Business Journal, during opening weekend alone, the WPBL’s Instagram following jumped from 180,000 to 220,000, and the league has now built an audience of approximately 500,000 followers across all channels. Merchandise has reportedly been “flying off the shelves,” and the league sold out its inaugural game and has already sold more than 22,000 tickets overall.

 

THE NEXT CHAPTER IN WOMEN'S BASEBALL IS HERE

When I was seven years old playing baseball with my brother, becoming a professional baseball player wasn’t something I could realistically dream about. Today, girls playing baseball have something generations before them didn’t always have: a professional league to aspire to.

 

The AAGPBL wrote one of the most important chapters in women’s baseball history, and more than 70 years later, the WPBL is writing the next one – backed by media distribution, major brand partners, growing audiences, and early fan demand.

 

For investors and brands looking for the next growth opportunity in women’s sports, look no further than women’s baseball. The WPBL is officially here – and the opportunity to get involved is right now.

 

MEET CAROLINE FITZGERALD