For over 70 years, America has lacked a major professional women’s baseball league. 

In 1943, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was created to fill ballparks left empty by men fighting in World War II. But 12 years later, unable to compete with the return of men’s baseball, the AAGPBL shut its doors, thus beginning a 71-year hiatus. However, with the 2026 inaugural season of the Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL), this intermission will come to a close.

The WPBL was co-founded by Keith Stein, CEO of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team, and Justine Siegal, founder of Baseball for All and the first woman to coach within Major League Baseball (MLB). At the age of 13, Siegal’s baseball coach told her to quit because “girls don’t play baseball.” Instead of giving up, Siegal said she used his words to fuel her baseball journey and inspire other young women who have faced similar backlash.

The process of forming the WPBL commenced about two years ago when Stein reached out to Siegal with the idea. Siegal said creating the league is “essentially creating a whole business,” requiring support and funding in order to get started.

“There are two first [steps]. The first is that you have to convince people that women’s baseball is a financially sound, entertaining idea. So many people just associate women with softball. So we have to break that barrier,” Siegal said. “The second is you have to get money to do it. Keith is not the first person to think of women’s pro baseball. He’s just the first person in a long time who has brought the money and got the investors to make it possible.”

All games for the 2026 season will be played in Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois, and will feature four teams: New York, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The rules for the league will differ slightly from those in the MLB, following the World Cup guidelines, which include the usage of aluminum bats, adjusted field dimensions and seven-inning games. 

Michelle Roche was the 39th overall pick in the second round of the WPBL’s inaugural draft, selected by the Los Angeles team. Roche has been playing baseball since she was 3 years old, later playing in the BCPBL and serving as a pitcher on Team Canada. Roche said she hopes young women will be able to look up to the athletes in the WPBL and realize that a baseball career is not as “far out of reach” as some may believe.

“Growing up, I was always the only girl on the team. Looking up at older age groups, I would notice there were no girls at all. It was disheartening to see that,” Roche said. “I always tried to be a role model for the young girls who played baseball in my area because I played at such a high level. But that’s only being a role model for a very small number of people. This opportunity to be known across the country, across even the world, is such an insane experience that I’m really looking forward to.”

Director of Athletics Kim Smith said watching the formation of the WPBL reminded her of the beginnings of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). Smith’s soccer career included playing in Japan and Germany’s professional leagues, as well as winning a national championship with her team, the Raleigh Wings. If female athletes wanted to pursue a soccer career, Smith said, they had to go overseas — as did female baseball players. 

“If you can see it, you can be it. There were very few female role models when I was playing sports, but the few that did exist, like Cheryl Miller and Joan Benoit and Mary Decker-Slaney, [showed me] that pursuing a sport beyond college, beyond high school, was possible,” Smith said. “When the soccer league started up here in the U.S. for the first time, there was a lot of excitement … around the opportunity to play in the United States and pursue this dream. There’s a similar excitement around this baseball league.”

The successes of various women’s leagues have all set the stage for the WPBL, Siegal said. The more opportunities women are granted in sports, Siegal said, the more systemic change is possible.

“We’re really riding the wave of women’s pro sports as a whole, and we can thank the WNBA, the NWSL and others for creating this momentum where people are now watching women play sports. It’s not that women just became great athletes, it’s that the fan base finally noticed,” Siegal said. “This is the best women’s baseball players have ever been. You have the quality product, and now you have the fan base who wants it. And so that’s why the time is now.” 

In the third round of the draft, the Los Angeles team selected Brittany Apgar as the 55th overall draft pick. Apgar, who was born without a right hand, has played baseball since she was about 3 years old, before she was cut from her high school team because her coach believed she would “never be strong enough to compete with men.”

“You haven’t seen a one-handed person play professional [baseball] since the 1990s with Jim Abbott. I was born without my right hand, so I promise there’s a good show in that aspect,” Apgar said. “I am so excited to bring some southernness to Los Angeles. I’m a Giants fan, so I never in my life thought I’d be in LA. I am just so stoked — we’re going all the way this year. I don’t know if you’ve seen our roster, but we’re stacked, so LA is going to get the first championship. I hope y’all are excited because we’re excited to bring it.” 

Roche said watching the Los Angeles team come together was very exciting, and she hopes that fans of both men’s and women’s baseball will find the game as thrilling as she does.

“Women’s baseball is a different sport from men’s baseball, but it’s just as entertaining, exciting and exhilarating,” Roche said. “I’m really excited for people … to see what women can do. I really hope they’re just as impressed by us as I am. Women can throw the ball really hard. Women can hit the ball really far. We can turn double plays. We can jog people down at home. When I see what these women are able to do, I’m filled with joy.”

The current Archer Athletics curriculum only offers a softball team; however, Smith noted that there are two reputable girls’ baseball programs in Los Angeles: the LA Heat and Los Angeles Monarchs. Smith said she hopes the 2026 WPBL season will inspire Archer students to explore opportunities in baseball, as well as any other sports they are passionate about.

“Hopefully, this has a great impact on our student athletes to let them know that this is possible, this league exists, and if it’s something they want to pursue, they’re able to. There’s no limit to what they can do or how far they can go just because they’re a female athlete,” Smith said. “Women can do anything.” 

Apgar said training and preparing for the WPBL made her feel like she was “always meant to do this.” Growing up, Apgar felt “embarrassed” by her passion for baseball due to the lack of support from her hometown in North Carolina. She said this experience has inspired her to work as hard as she can ahead of the inaugural season so young girls like her will never feel ashamed for having a passion for baseball.

“Even if you don’t find a love for baseball, find the love to be completely, authentically yourself. We just love baseball so much, and we have the opportunity to take that to a professional league. I hope this encourages everybody who has that niche that might not be popular yet to just do it because you love doing it. Inspire somebody else to do it, too. Because the more we can do that, the better this world starts getting,” Apgar said. “This is bigger than baseball. It’s about the fact that women belong in this world. They belong being leaders. They belong being heroes. They belong being artists, bosses. Women belong.”

This story was originally published on The Oracle on December 14, 2025.