{"id":975612,"date":"2026-08-02T12:02:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T12:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/975612\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T12:02:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T12:02:24","slug":"ex-little-league-star-mone-davis-focused-on-having-fun-in-wpbl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/975612\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Little League star Mo’ne Davis focused on having fun in WPBL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SPRINGFIELD, Ill.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0For the last few years, Mo\u2019ne Davis<\/a> has enjoyed her anonymity.<\/p>\n

It had been 11 years since Davis was the first girl to pitch a shutout at the Little League World Series<\/a> when she decided to give pro women\u2019s baseball a shot despite having never played baseball with women before.<\/p>\n

It had been five years since she played competitive baseball, and at age 24, she wasn\u2019t sure if a comeback was in the cards.<\/p>\n

Then, she decided, why not? After playing flag football last summer, she felt the competitive juices start to flow again, so she entered her name in the Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League draft and became one of the first members of the Los Angeles Queens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Mo'ne <\/p>\n

Mo\u2019ne Davis hits during a Women\u2019s Pro Baseball League exhibition game in Fort Myers, Fla.<\/p>\n

(Rebecca Blackwell \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to try it out,\u201d she said from the warning track at Robin Roberts Field in Springfield, Ill., where the league was set to play its first games this weekend. \u201cI don\u2019t like to go through life regretting anything. I want to make sure I can look back and be like, \u2018Hey, I tried it out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis won\u2019t be looking to rediscover what made her a sensation all those years ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how many times anyone asks, the answer is gonna stay the same: I\u2019m not pitching,\u201d she said. \u201cI am doing what I want to do. I\u2019m not doing what everyone else wants me to do. So whether you like it or not, I\u2019m still gonna live my life, but I just want to show people, like, I\u2019m gonna go out there and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 2014 Little League World Series, Davis fired a 70-mph fastball and became the first female pitcher to win a game in the tournament when she tossed a shutout with eight strikeouts in Philadelphia\u2019s opening game against Nashville.<\/p>\n

\"Philadelphia's <\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s Mo\u2019ne Davis pitches against Nashville at the Little League World Series on Aug. 15, 2014.<\/p>\n

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)<\/p>\n

She played center field for the Hampton University softball team and where she posted a career batting average of .225 with 34 hits, 24 runs and 16 RBIs over two seasons.<\/p>\n

Baseball hadn\u2019t been on her radar since she started playing softball in college, but the WPBL changed everything. She said she was \u201cstill mad\u201d that she didn\u2019t hit well in the Little League World Series and wants to show off her skills in the batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I did go pitch more, I would get compared to my younger self more,\u201d she said. \u201cMy goal is to do what I want to do, not to be compared to my 13-year-old self, and let people know that I\u2019ve grown. I\u2019m an adult woman now, so you have to separate the two.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Little League run led to her being on the cover of Wheaties boxes and Sports Illustrated and becoming one of the most well-known female athletes of her era. She grew up wanting to play basketball and dabbling in football, but she has been the de facto face of women who play baseball without picking a bat up for a half-decade.<\/p>\n

\"Mo'ne <\/p>\n

Mo\u2019ne Davis throws out the ceremonial first pitch prior to a Dodgers game on Nov. 17, 2014.<\/p>\n

(Mark J. Terrill\/AP)<\/p>\n

Though some of the attention on her is \u201cannoying,\u201d channeling her competitiveness into a professional sport was an opportunity she wouldn\u2019t miss.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been in the spotlight most of her life,\u201d Queens third baseman Ashton Lansdell said. \u201cPeople kind of expect her to be this celebrity person, and she\u2019s honestly just such a chill girl. Like she just wants to be a normal person. It takes her a little bit to warm up to people, I think because she\u2019s been in the spotlight her whole life, so maybe she can be a little shy at times. But when she starts breaking out of her shell, she\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Queens selected Davis with the 10th pick in December\u2019s draft after she participated in the league\u2019s tryout last August.<\/p>\n

In April, Davis signed with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Banana Ball League, where she got in some innings as a relief pitcher. The Clowns are a revival of a 1940s and 1950s barnstorming Negro League team that included Toni Stone, the first woman to play in a professional men\u2019s baseball league.<\/p>\n

Former MLB center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. has been a mentor for Davis, and she said working with him and other Banana Ball players helped her develop her \u201cbaseball IQ.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such an honor to be able to learn and soak up how she carries herself and, like, what she\u2019s learned from her careers,\u201d Queens outfielder Brittany Apagar said. \u201cThe exposure she\u2019s gotten exposes us as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis, who has degrees from Hampton and Columbia, became the third person from that Little League team to be drafted professionally, joining Scott Bandura (San Francisco Giants, now in triple A) and Jared Sprague-Lott (Athletics, now in class A).<\/p>\n

But once again, Davis finds herself in the middle of history. This time, she\u2019s not alone in making it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to protect my peace,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t want my teammates to look at me any differently. … I don\u2019t want them to look at me as like, \u2018Oh, she\u2019s only here for this.\u2019 … I want them to know I\u2019m here for you guys. I\u2019m here to, you know, win games with you guys, and I\u2019m here for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPRINGFIELD, Ill.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0For the last few years, Mo\u2019ne Davis has enjoyed her anonymity. It had been 11 years since…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":975613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[591,44462,1582,276,21807,11660,391584,2961,2252,61967,224,5337,120876,391406,3546,160934,106073,11459,160932,1628],"class_list":["post-975612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-baseball","tag-box","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-first-game","tag-fun","tag-indianapolis-clowns","tag-la","tag-life","tag-little-league-world-series","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-many-time","tag-mone-davis","tag-people","tag-pro-baseball-league","tag-shutout","tag-woman","tag-wpbl","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117025818051812526","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975612","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=975612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/975613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}