The Women’s Professional Baseball League has chosen New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco as the cities that will represent the four teams that will compete in the inaugural season, the league announced Tuesday.
The upstart league co-founded by Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach for an MLB team with the Oakland Athletics in 2015, announced plans last year to launch in 2026 as a six-team circuit with a regular season, playoffs and all-star game. When it debuts, it will be the first pro league for women since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — immortalized in “A League of Their Own” — dissolved in 1954.
The WPBL will now launch with four teams for the inaugural season, with 15 players per club.
The top 100 players from the WPBL’s summer tryouts advanced to the league’s draft next month, which will also feature some of the sport’s biggest stars, including former Little League star Mo’ne Davis, USA baseball’s Kelsie Whitmore and Japanese pitcher Ayami Sato.
All of the WPBL’s games will be played at a neutral venue in 2026, which the league said will be announced at a later date.
The league added the four cities were selected because of their market size and large fan presence.
“Each of these cities are storied sports cities,” Siegal said in a statement, “and we can’t wait to connect with the fans who live there and baseball fans across the country.”
As CBS Sports reported previously, Siegal and co-founder/lawyer Keith Stein enlisted a few other notable names as special advisors, including World Series-winning manager Cito Gaston.
“You’re going to see passion. You know our women, they love the game so much. You know it’s an obstacle to get to play, and here we are living out our dreams. So it’s going to be just fantastic,” Siegal told “CBS Mornings Plus” last year.
The United States has won two Women’s Baseball World Cups, and most recently finished as the runners-up in the 2024 event (that was played in 2023), according to CBS Sports. The U.S. team roster included Whitmore who has appeared in games with various independent leagues, including the Atlantic League, Pacific Association and the Pioneer League.
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