‘This is home’: The lights shine bright in the inaugural WPBL season

SPRINGFIELD, ILL. — Anytime a baseball player touches home plate, whether it’s an emphatic stomp after a home run trot or in a contested slide trying to tag on a fly ball, it’s an exciting moment. That feeling sums up every moment of the inaugural Women’s Professional Baseball League in Springfield, Ill. this summer. From the opening day on Aug. 1 to when the playoffs start on Sept. 9 and all the hits and diving plays in between, history is being made as the WPBL has become the first pro league for women’s baseball in the United States since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League ran from 1943-1955. The first WPBL season will span five weeks with 15 seven-inning games for the founding four teams: the Heights, the San Francisco Firebells, the Los Angeles Queens, the New York Heights and the Boston Hunters. Wielding aluminum bats and using a hardball on a regulation field with a temporary fence that requires homers to deep center fly over 330, the women are fulfilling dreams of women around the world who have always wanted to play baseball with women against other women. As the skipper for the New York Heights, Rocky Henley is the only woman manager in the league. She has built an impressive career for herself, which includes playing collegiate softball, being a member of the Colorado Silver Bullets, a women’s pro team that played men’s pro and semi-pro teams from 1994-97, founding the San Francisco Bay Sox Girls Baseball Program and more. The WPBL is different. “This just feels so comfortable, so home. This is home,” Henley said. It’s a home for women who were told they couldn’t play baseball. Or ones who played anyway, often finding themselves as the only girl on their Little League team like L.A. center fielder Mo’ne Davis and San Francisco pitcher/DH Kelsie Whitmore. Or the ones that got pushed into softball instead. Or the ones that continue to do both, switching back and forth between the sports in an astonishing athletic feat of adjustments like Boston outfielder Lexi Hastings. A dream turns to reality Meggie Meidlinger, a relief pitcher for the Queens, who is also the oldest player in the league at 38, played baseball on her high school team in Virginia, becoming the first girl to throw a perfect game in a boys varsity high school game in the state’s history. Meidlinger has played on the U.S. Women’s National Baseball team since 2006 and played on a variety of teams, but nothing compares to the WPBL. “Since even before opening day, I have just been taking all these mental snapshots of this is a moment that so many of us have dreamed for such a long time and it’s finally here. Every moment, you don’t take it for granted. This is a moment that I wasn’t even sure would happen in my playing days and thankfully I am still playing and I don’t take a single moment for granted. Known as “The Architect” because of the methodical and accurate style of her pitching in addition to her day job as a sports architect, Meidlinger, who towers on the mound at 6-foot-2, has put up a 2.70 ERA and a 1-1 record with eight appearances heading into the last week of the regular season. Each team’s roster has 18 players, hailing from 11 different countries and territories. The fans are equally diverse. From the older folks who have made road trips from around the country to witness history, to players’ families, friends and coaches who never imagined they could see this, to the young, like entire girls and boys Little League teams, fans cheer on each team in the stands on a nightly basis on game days Wednesday-Sunday. Opening day on Aug. 1 sold out the 5,200-capacity stadium. “I think the environment of the stands gives life to the players who are up to bat and in the field,” said Los Angeles pitcher Michelle Roche. “It’s really exciting baseball. It’s so fun to play in every single game.” Reaching beyond the field Former MLB infielder and base stealer Eric Young Sr. is managing the Queens. After a 15-year career with seven teams from 1994-2006, Young had a long coaching career for several more teams. He never got the opportunity to manage in MLB, but was thrilled to come out of retirement to be part of the WPBL. “It’s a phenomenal experience to be part of the inaugural season, managing the ladies on my team. They are phenomenal and just great people. They come to play every day,” Young said. “I told them, ‘This is your stage. I’ve had my stage. This is all about you, and how you want to carry yourself, our team, the league.” For those who can’t see it in person, they can watch on ESPN Select in the U.S. and on YouTube internationally. “This is a monumental moment. There are a lot of people, especially women, who have been waiting for this. I told them, ‘There are people all over that are rooting for you. You don’t even realize, you don’t even have an idea of who’s rooting for you. They may not be here, but they are watching YouTube, they are reading the paper, they are finding some way to see how we are playing.’ So I want them to play well. I want them to succeed. I tell them, ‘You owe it to them. Make sure you play your best.’” With the Fireballs leading the way with eight wins, the Queens are 1.5 games back, the Heights are 2.5 and the Hunters are four games out, the standings are close headed into the final week of the regular season. With parity in the first season, any team can win on any night, making it all the more exciting. For Boston Hunter infielder Gabby Haas, she feels the pressure, but is also trying to just play the game she loves. “We are just trying to not make the moment too big,” Haas said. “I always just try to go out there and be where my feet are and be grateful that I am out here every day.” Building a sustainable future Henley is grateful for the opportunity to be part of this. After suiting up for the Silver Bullets, who lost their sponsor Coors after four years and consequently folded, she knows that the WPBL has to build wisely to have a successful future. It helps that WPBL Commissioner and co-founder Justine Siegal also founded Baseball For All, which is the largest girls’ baseball organization in the United States. With thousands of girls playing uninterrupted baseball, including over 900 at the BFA National Tournament down the road in Rockford, Ill. from July 19-25, the youth is coming behind these WBPL stars. “I think we have to start out a little slow because we want to make sure that we build enough talent. We don’t want to expand too fast,” Henley said, noting that adding more teams might not come until later down the road. “I’d say, if it can just hold on for five years, then the talent pull will be just amazing because the 15- to 16-year-olds now can flat out play.” Whitmore and New York catcher Denae Benitez, two of the several WPBL players who also play Bananaball and are on the U.S. National Women’s Baseball team, have provided fireworks this summer in a back-and-forth home run race that has each slugger with nine entering the final stretch with three games remaining for the Fireballs and two for the Heights. Whitmore said the WPBL is a dream come true, but it’s just the beginning. “We see this league being here forever,” Whitmore said. “That’s the goal.”

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