New women’s pro baseball league
turns long-held dreams into reality at Red Sox spring home
[March 19, 2026]
By ALANIS THAMES
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Kelsie Whitmore stood near third base at
JetBlue Park and looked around at her new norm.
Women baseball players from around the world tossed balls back and
forth, sharing laughs and taking pointers from major league coaches.
In less than five months, they will play in the first women's
professional baseball league in the United States in more than 70
years.
“I never thought this would ever happen for me in my prime career,”
said Whitmore, a standout pitcher and outfielder who has won
multiple medals playing for the U.S. women’s national baseball team.
“I never thought it was ever going to happen, truly.”
Reality set in Wednesday for Whitmore and players from the Women's
Pro Baseball League. The upstart league is taking part in a two-day
event in Fort Myers, Florida, at the spring training home of the
Boston Red Sox in preparation for the launch of its eight-week
season on August 1.
The Red Sox have hosted women's baseball camps for a decade and
welcomed several of the WPBL's stars for drills on Wednesday. Among
them were veteran Japanese pitcher Ayami Sato and former Little
League star Mo'ne Davis.
Davis, who at 13 became the first girl to earn a win and pitch a
shutout in the Little League World Series, stayed close to coaches
throughout the two-hour session to ask questions and refine her
game. She left with plenty of helpful tips, including how to stay
low in her hitting stance to generate power through her hips.
“This is another moment that I take when I go back home — what do I
need to work on?” Davis said. “For me specifically is hitting
approach. That’s the one I’m really focusing on because I want to be
a better hitter. I want be a more consistent hitter. ... I
appreciate all the coaches that helped today. Whatever question you
had, they were open to answering it.”
The WPBL will also play an intrasquad scrimmage Thursday ahead of
the Red Sox spring training game against the Minnesota Twins.
“These athletes have done something that hasn’t existed in 80
years,” said Shawn Smith, Red Sox general manager of Florida
operations. “And they’re at the pinnacle of their craft right now
only to get better. For us to be here — I feel like a little kid. I
can’t describe it any other way.”
[to top of second column] |
Mo'ne Davis fields a ball during a Women's Pro Baseball League (WPBL)
practice, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Fort Myers, Fla. (AP
Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
The WPBL is launching with four teams — Boston, San
Francisco, Los Angeles and New York — this summer and will play a
six-week regular season and two-week postseason at Robin Roberts
Stadium in Springfield, Illinois.
The U.S. hadn't had a pro women’s league since the
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League dissolved in 1954,
but the WPBL is hoping to create a lasting path for women to play
professional baseball. That's a rarity in the U.S., where
opportunities beyond youth leagues have so often required girls to
take unusual paths, most of them alongside men.
Whitmore is from San Diego and made her professional debut in the
Bay Area with a coed team, the Sonoma Stompers, in 2016. The
27-year-old has won two silver medals representing the U.S. at the
Women’s Baseball World Cup and won gold at the 2015 Pan-Am Games in
Toronto.
Whitmore, the No. 1 overall selection to San Diego in the WPBL's
inaugural draft, had grown accustomed to being the only woman on
most teams and said she's often dreamt of what it would be like to
play alongside other women.
Now that it's a reality, the hope is that this creates a pipeline
that didn't exist for Whitmore and many of her peers.
“A lot of us women have created the path and created it without
knowing what that looked like,” Whitmore said. “Now there is a path
for them, and so these young girls have something to look forward
to.”
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
