Thursday, November 14, 2024

Women’s baseball players could soon have a league of their own again

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For nearly every highlight of Julie Croteau’s trailblazing baseball career — all except her time as a double in “A League of Their Own,” really — she shared the field with men. Frequently as teammates. Always as foes. That’s mostly how it’s been for generations of female players.

So when she recently heard about plans to give today’s players the chance to shine against other women in baseball, Croteau had one thought.

“It’s about time,” she said with a chuckle.

The Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL) announced plans last month to launch in 2026 as a six-team circuit for female players. If and when it debuts, it will be the first pro league for women since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — the one immortalized in “A League of Their Own” — dissolved in 1954.

Heightened interest in women’s sports in recent years made this an ideal time to launch a women’s baseball league, said co-founder Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach for an MLB team with the Oakland Athletics in 2015.

The consulting firm Deloitte estimated that women’s sports will generate a billion dollars in global revenue in 2024 for the first time because of skyrocketing popularity and marketing deals. The WNBA had its most watched regular season in 24 years thanks largely to its star rookie class led by Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. The inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League brought in record crowds.

“Certainly we’re standing on the shoulders of the success of the other pro leagues,” Siegal said.

Siegal has sought advice from women leading other professional leagues and is studying what made them successful. That includes catering to the specific needs of female athletes — who often face a different set of responsibilities than their male counterparts.

Siegal was the first woman to coach for a professional baseball team with the independent league Brockton Rox in 2009, and the first woman to throw batting practice to an MLB team with Cleveland during spring training in 2001.

Back then, Siegal remembers scrambling to find babysitters for her daughter while she coached, and pulling her daughter out of school and bringing her along to the field in some cases.

“I had to do many things to make my dream come true,” Siegal said. “And so I am particularly keen on making sure that we don’t overlook mothers who can compete and deserve a place in the league.”

When she was 13, a coach told Siegal she shouldn’t play baseball because she was a girl. She was told to play softball, which is a reality many girls in the sport face.

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