We’ve Been Told to ‘Play Softball’ for Decades. Now, Women Are Getting the Baseball League They Deserve
For the first time in over 70 years, women in the U.S. are getting their own professional baseball league again. The Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) will launch in the summer of 2026. It will be the first of its kind since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954. According to CBS Sports, the WPBL was co-founded by trailblazing coach Justine Siegal and sports executive Keith Stein, and will debut with six teams primarily from the Northeast.
Who’s Behind the New Women’s Baseball League?
The league is the vision of Justine Siegal, who was the first woman to coach a professional men’s baseball team and to throw batting practice for an MLB team. Siegal also founded Baseball for All, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing opportunities for girls in baseball. “The day my coach told me to quit was the day that I decided to play baseball forever,” Siegal said in a statement shared by The Female Quotient.
Siegal will join forces with Keith Stein, a lawyer and businessman with a background in sports leagues and team ownership. According to Sports Pro, Stein sees the WPBL as an opportunity to capitalize on the growing momentum in women’s sports, citing the success of the WNBA and the NWSL as proof of concept.
The WPBL has also enlisted two notable names as special advisors: Ayami Sato, a five-time Women’s Baseball World Cup champion and standout pitcher from Japan, and Cito Gaston, the first Black manager in MLB history to win a World Series.
Why the Women’s Baseball League Is Launching Now
The timing couldn’t be better. Women’s sports are on fire, and the numbers prove it. According to The Female Quotient, over 70% of people now watch women’s sports, with more than half of that audience joining in just the last two years. Global revenue for women’s sports will probably reach $2.35 billion in 2025, up from $1.88 billion in 2024.
As Siegal told the Associated Press, the surge in popularity made this the perfect moment to bring women’s baseball back. “We have been waiting over 70 years for a professional baseball league we can call our own. Our time is now,” she said in the league’s official press release.
The Women’s Baseball League Still Faces an Uphill Battle
While the energy around the WPBL is electric, the league has significant hurdles ahead. According to NBC News, one of the biggest challenges is simply finding players with enough experience to compete at a professional level. As of now, no state offers girls’ baseball at the high school level. During the last academic year, only 1,372 girls played baseball on boys’ teams, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. That’s compared to nearly half a million boys.
Still, there’s hope. “There are girls playing baseball in local leagues around the country right now,” Siegal told NBC. “The WPBL is going to be able to give a pipeline for girls who are being told they should quit, when now they know that they have a place where they could play.”
A Cultural Reset 70 Years in the Making
The last time women played pro baseball in the U.S., the world was recovering from World War II, and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League had to fight for legitimacy. It eventually folded due to a lack of funding, declining attendance, and little to no promotion.
Now, the WPBL is arriving in a landscape where women’s sports are booming. According to The Week, league founders are currently focusing on securing franchise owners, national broadcasting deals, and building team infrastructure. Details about team names and cities are still under wraps, but one thing is clear: this league is being built for longevity.
