With baseball in the sports spotlight during the final month of summer, a new womens professional baseball venture is launching this weekend. The Womens Pro Baseball League debuts on Saturday with teams representing four cities major markets of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston where baseball thrives. Each of the markets was also chosen for its association for a central figure in womens professional baseball and American history. Yet the league will play all of its regular-season games 15 for each team during this inaugural campaign at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois. Saturdays first game, matching the Los Angeles Queens and New York Heights, will play before a sold-out ballpark of 5,200 fans. The San Francisco Firebells and Boston Hunters will play their opener on Sunday. Which flavor of sunflower seeds is your go-to?? pic.twitter.com/tZKq5qweZR Women's Pro Baseball League (@wpbl_official) July 27, 2026Each team will have 15 players on their rosters and the games will go seven innings. Among the recognizable names who will take the field are Mone Davis, who became a national sensation during the 2014 Little League World Series; Kelsie Whitmore, the No. 1 overall pick in Novembers WPBL draft who has played in several independent baseball leagues and with the Savannah Bananas; and Japanese star Ayami Sato, considered by many to be the best female baseball player in the world. Ayami Sato, Nasty Back Foot Slider. [1st woman to play for a Canadian pro mens baseball league ] pic.twitter.com/UidmSqlLIW Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 12, 2025Women have always been part of this game, International Womens Baseball Center CEO Kat Williams told the Associated Press. Weve always played, weve always umpired, weve always coached. And in some of the earliest references in the 17th century, the earliest references to something like a game of baseball, it was women that were playing it.All of the WPBLs 37 games regular-season and playoffs will stream on ESPN during this first season. Eleven regular-season games will also stream on the Scripps Sports Network. Beth Greenwood made history with @UofR as the 1st American woman to ever catch in a NCAA baseball game. Now, shes getting ready for the first season of the @wpbl_official after being drafted by Boston. We talked about her journey and how shes found her place in baseball pic.twitter.com/Wf36yFMuEU Rachel Libert (@Rachel_Libert) July 10, 2026Managers for the four WPBL teams include former major leaguers Keith Foulke (Boston), Eric Young Sr. (Los Angeles) and Matt Williams (San Francisco). Rachelle Rocky Henley, a key figure in developing womens baseball in the Bay Area, will manage the New York club.The WPBL was co-founded by Justine Siegal, who is the leagues commissioner. Siegal became the first woman to coach for an MLB team in 2015 when she worked in player development with the Oakland Athletics instructional league team.She is also the founder of Baseball For All, a national non-profit organization dedicated to providing instruction and opportunities for women in baseball. Springfields rich history with womens professional baseballWPBL officials said the league is playing its inaugural season in Springfield because it preferred a neutral location in the middle of the country. But the Midwest is an integral part of womens baseball. Fans of the sports history and pop culture likely recognize the association with womens baseball and Springfield. The first professional womens baseball game, between teams named the Brunettes and Blondes, was played there in 1875. Springfield also had a team in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the history of which became nationally known due to the 1992 film A League of Their Own. The Rockford Peaches, the main team in that story, played three hours away as part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. (The Racine Belles and Kenosha Comets also played approximately 300 miles away in Wisconsin.)