{"id":975571,"date":"2026-08-02T11:40:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T11:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/975571\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T11:40:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T11:40:33","slug":"womens-professional-baseball-league-makes-a-rainy-debut-in-front-of-enthusiastic-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/975571\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Professional Baseball League makes a rainy debut in front of enthusiastic crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) \u2014 Sarah Hodel and Rachel Koehler arrived at Robin Roberts Stadium more than four hours before the first game of the Women\u2019s Professional Baseball League. Once inside, Hodel stopped periodically for pictures as she walked along the concourse.<\/p>\n

She wanted to savor every moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in high school I was on my speech team and my informative speech was on women in baseball,\u201d said Hodel, a 43-year-old athletic trainer from Duluth, Minnesota. \u201cSo as soon as I saw this happening a couple years ago it was my goal to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

That moment finally arrived on Saturday night, when Mo\u2019ne Davis and the Los Angeles Queens rallied for a 10-8 victory over Denae Benites and the New York Heights in a rainy debut for the first women\u2019s professional baseball league in the United States in almost 30 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up I played softball,\u201d said Koehler, 33, of St. Paul, Minnesota. \u201cI wanted to play baseball because going professional was always like the dream, but there (were) no opportunities. … So now that that\u2019s actually an opportunity and something that girls can look up to I think is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maggie Foxx picked up the league\u2019s first hit on a two-run single for Los Angeles in the first inning. Benites connected for the WPBL\u2019s first homer, a two-run drive to center in the bottom of the fourth.<\/p>\n

The Queens trailed 8-4 before scoring two runs in the sixth and four more in wet and windy conditions for the final frame of the seven-inning contest.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Ayami<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I walked on the field I started crying because of how much this moment meant, and how much it meant to everybody,\u201d Foxx said. \u201cIt means everything to us.\u201d <\/p>\n

A steady rain fell for much of the day, soaking the 101-year-old home of the WPBL\u2019s inaugural season<\/a>. But much of the crowd of more than 4,000 started lining up hours before the game, hoping to grab a Davis bobblehead on the way to the metal bleachers.<\/p>\n

The line for the main merchandise booth stretched all the way to the outfield along one side of the ballpark.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a daughter, it\u2019s really exciting to give her exposure to female professional athletes,\u201d said Antonietta Mabry, 47, an accountant from Columbus, Ohio. \u201cIt\u2019s such a rare thing, so it\u2019s really cool to give her some really positive female role models and examples.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mabry was accompanied by her husband, Jason, a 48-year-old auditor, and their daughter, Rosalee. The 9-year-old Mabry got her glove autographed by San Francisco second baseman Amanda Gianelloni.<\/p>\n

The Firebells and Boston Hunters \u2014 the league\u2019s other two teams \u2014 play on Sunday. A couple players from each team helped the grounds crew pull the tarp off the field after the rain subsided.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to be here because I play softball and I really like it and it\u2019s really cool that I get to see professional women play,\u201d Rosalee Mabry said.<\/p>\n

The WPBL paid tribute to the past, present and future of women\u2019s baseball during a rain-delayed pregame ceremony. The crowd cheered as the lineups for the Queens and Heights were announced.<\/p>\n

But the biggest ovation of the night was for 99-year-old Maybelle Blair, who threw a ceremonial first pitch to San Francisco\u2019s Kelsie Whitmore, one of the biggest stars of the WPBL. Blair, who serves on a WPBL advisory board, played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which ran from 1943-54 and inspired the 1992 movie, \u201cA League of Their Own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s pretty incredible,\u201d Benites said. \u201cMaybelle\u2019s been sticking with us since the beginning of this journey. She\u2019s paved a path for us, really. … She\u2019s a special person and I\u2019m so happy that she got to make it out here and do that today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsey Keirsey, 42, a high school history teacher in Fenton, Missouri, said she is obsessed with the AAGPBL and \u201cA League of Their Own.\u201d She attended the game with her husband, Drew, 43, and their four children, Hadley, 17, Nolan, 15, Elam, 11, and Abbott, 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go to St. Louis Cardinals games all the time,\u201d Hadley Keirsey said. \u201cAs much as I love baseball, I think it\u2019s an amazing opportunity to see so many women be able to play and just break ground like that. Even though it\u2019s just a sport, I think that if we can do things like this and let women play in sports like this, women can do so many more things.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) \u2014 Sarah Hodel and Rachel Koehler arrived at Robin Roberts Stadium more than four hours…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":975572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[391572,51,1819,1818,391573,391574,391407,50,391571,202933,2750,391575,62,52],"class_list":["post-975571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-amanda-gianelloni","tag-headlines","tag-il-state-wire","tag-illinois","tag-kelsie-whitmore","tag-lindsey-keirsey","tag-maggie-foxx","tag-news","tag-rachel-koehler","tag-robin-roberts","tag-san-francisco","tag-sarah-hodel","tag-sports","tag-top-stories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117025731994326735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/975572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}