The next league of their own: Hundreds of women's baseball players try out for the pros

The WPBL aims to make the most significant impact on women’s baseball since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which operated from 1943 to 1954 and inspired the hit movie “A League of Their Own.”

“When I found out about the league (family and friends) just encouraged me to go out there,” Davis, 24, told reporters Monday at Nationals Park. “Why not give it a chance? I just never wanted to have a regret of not trying.”

Davis, the 2014 Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, who earned a master’s degree in sports management from Columbia University last year, had happily turned the page on sports before deciding to give America’s pastime another shot.

“I had a mindset, I’m not doing it (playing competitive sports) anymore,” Davis told NBC News. “The people around me, they gave me the confidence and the courage to come out here.”

Davis was among hundreds of women who shuttled around the diamonds and batting cages over the weekend at the Washington Nationals’ youth academy before they staged games Monday at Nationals Park.

Davis captured the nation’s attention 11 summers ago, leading her Taney Dragons to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. She became the first girl to earn a Little League World Series win, throwing a complete game shutout in Taney’s 4-0 victory over South Nashville.

The 13-year-old was suddenly among the world’s most famous female athletes, earning the AP award that’s gone to such historical figures as Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Caitlin Clark.

“I had a good support system around me that helped me out so I didn’t have to deal too much by myself,” Davis said, recalling the massive attention that suddenly fell on her in 2014. “It was a blessing because I’ve gotten so many opportunities but a curse I had so many eyes watching me.”

That time in Williamsport could’ve been the apex of Davis’ on-the-field career. She went on to play softball at Hampton University, where she had a solid freshman campaign in 2020 before losing 2021 to Covid, slumping in 2022 and not playing in 2023.

So by the time Davis puts on cleats in May, it will have been four years since she last played competitive sports. Davis gave up her on-the-field retirement, saying she couldn’t pass up this rare chance.

“It’s really cool just to have support from the women out here,” Davis said. “It’s been really cool just to be able to play with women and for all these women to possibly be the first in this league, I think that’s really special.”

The hundreds of women trying out donned traditional hardball duds with black numbers on pieces of white paper pinned to their torsos. It made for an “American Idol” look to this baseball casting call.

Girls have a variety of team sport options to choose from when entering high school, with indoor volleyball (492,799 girls played in 2024-25), soccer (393,048), basketball (356,240) and fast-pitch softball (338,315) leading the way, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

There were 1,381 girls who played baseball last academic year — a surprisingly high number that still pales in comparison to the 472,598 boys in caps and cleats.

Kelsie Whitmore, once an elite Division I softball player, has spent years hustling for any of the few hardball opportunities available to women.

The Cal State Fullerton alum has logged time with the Staten Island FerryHawks, Oakland Ballers and Savannah Bananas before showing up to Washington, D.C., this past weekend.

Whitmore said she was thankful a baseball league was created because she “did not want to play softball.”

“I’ll be straight up about that. I didn’t want to go play college softball,” said Whitmore, who showed no ill will toward softball while on her way to becoming the 2021 Big West Conference Player of the Year. “There were no opportunities for women in baseball, so I had no choice. But I did it. I wouldn’t take it back; it’s part of my journey.”

Lauren Boden, 33, and her sister Susanne Boden, 30, dropped everything in their busy lives as doctors to train for these tryouts.

Even though they didn’t make the cut, both women said they were overjoyed just to compete in the sport they enjoyed playing as girls before transitioning to softball at Division III Pomona-Pitzer.

“It was just great to be back in a super competitive atmosphere,” said the younger Boden, who, along with her sister, hopes to try out again next year. “And honestly, every time you’re told ‘no,’ it lights a little spark under you. I’m leaving here even more motivated.”

League co-founder Justine Siegal said every woman who has ever picked up a baseball now has the chance to play without being the only woman in a dugout filled with men.

“I feel like now I’m part of my family now,” she said. “I’m part of it with my peers.”

Just exactly how deep the talent pool of female baseball players goes is a mystery, as there are no sanctioned girls high school or college baseball programs.

The WNBA launched in 1996, and National Women’s Soccer League forerunners the Women’s United Soccer Association and Women’s Professional Soccer kicked off in 2001 and 2009, respectively. All of those women’s leagues had the benefit of their sports gaining popularity through years of college and international play.

However, there’s no such formal, bottom-up structure in place for women’s baseball.

Leslie Heaphy, a history professor at Kent State University at Stark and chair of the Women in Baseball Committee for the Society for American Baseball Research, said starting a pro league without a broader amateur foundation might seem unorthodox. But it may be the only way for this sport to take hold.

“So there’s lots of women’s baseball being played out there, it just isn’t in that more traditional setting,” said Heaphy, a WPBL adviser. “This is the way it was supposed to happen. But if we continue to wait for that, then it’s never going to happen.”

Backers of women’s baseball will always have to address the big, yellow elephant in the room: the growing popularity of high school and college softball.

Major League Baseball appeared to cast its lot with softball, not women’s baseball, earlier this year when it announced a partnership with the Athletes Unlimited Softball League.

WPBL co-founder Keith Stein insists softball isn’t a rival.

“I think it’s rising tides,” he said. “The more they rise, the more we will all be elevated.”

The WPBL didn’t even ask MLB for support, Stein said, assuming the league wouldn’t have interest in his startup.

And with no MLB involvement, Stein said the WPBL has more freedom to consider rule changes that could never get to first base in a legacy setting.

A host of unorthodox rules are under consideration for the WPBL, including a two-hour time limit, a “golden at-bat,” limitless pinch runners, inning-by-inning score competitions, a home run contest to break ties, and outfield assists at home plate that also result in trail runners being wiped out.