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.”
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Major League Baseball’s Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers and Giants play in the four cities selected by the WPBL, and all five clubs have benefited significantly not just from the “storied” history mentioned by Siegal that draws fans to them, but also their significant media markets: those cities represent four of the largest media markets in the United States.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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