WPBL looking for longevity as players take the field amid rising popularity for women's sports

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — When Alli Schroder first saw “A League of Their Own” — a 1992 movie based on the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — she saw herself in the story on the screen.

“It was kind of motivating as a kid to watch it because even though there wasn’t a platform for us to play professional baseball when I was growing up, playing Little League and youth baseball, like there was a vision that there could be,” Schroder said. “And we’re here now.”

They sure are.

The inaugural season of the Women’s Pro Baseball League begins on Saturday — weather permitting, with rain in the forecast — when Denae Benites and the New York Heights face Mo’ne Davis and the Los Angeles Queens. The other two teams in the league — the Boston Hunters and San Francisco Firebells — play on Sunday.

Each team will have 15 active players for the seven-inning games. The 15 regular-season games for each club and the playoffs will be held at Springfield's Robin Roberts Stadium, a historic ballpark that has a seating capacity of 5,200 and opened in 1925.

“What excites me most is having the chance to compete against players who have been my teammate, as well as Team USA players, and other athletes I’ve always considered rivals,” Japanese right-hander Ayami Sato, one of New York's top pitchers, said Friday through a translator. “Being able to play against them in this league is something I’ve been really looking forward to.”

The opening weekend of the WPBL marks another major moment in a scattered history for women's professional baseball in the United States. The AAGPBL, which ran from 1943-54, was the first professional women’s league in the U.S. There were at least two attempts to start a league in the 1990s, but each one was short-lived.

The WPBL was co-founded by Justine Siegal, who became the first woman to coach for an MLB team with the Athletics in 2015. And its players, taking the field in an era of unprecedented popularity for women's sports, have big dreams.

“We want to make this thing last forever and ever,” Los Angeles infielder Ashton Lansdell said. “We want this to become the MLB of women’s baseball.”

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