The inaugural season of the Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL), the first all-female, American pro baseball league in more than 70 years, will debut Saturday in Springfield, IL, with the New York Heights representing the Big Apple.
Named for the iconic civil rights activist and longtime NYC resident, Dorothy Height, the New York Heights’ roster of 15 women will take to the field at Robin Roberts Stadium in the sold-out opening-day game against the Los Angeles Queens, according to the WPBL.
The city’s newest professional sports team signed big names in women’s baseball like U.S. Women’s National Team members Kylee Lahners and Denae Benites, USWNT alum Valerie Perez and South Korean pitching sensation Rakyung Kim. But the Heights also scored some up-and-coming talent like 19-year-old London Studer at first base, and Canadian pitcher Jaida Lee.
Studer, a first-round draft pick for the Heights and 19th overall, told amNewYork that she has very high hopes for the New York squad.
“I don’t want to brag, but we have a strong bullpen, a strong rotation, and we have strong hitting USA players,” Studer said.
She predicted the Los Angeles Queens, featuring six-time Women’s Baseball World Cup gold-medalist Ayami Sato and legendary Little League World Series pitcher Mo’ne Davis, would be one of the New York Heights’ most formidable opponents. Still, Studer anticipated victory.
“All these teams are beatable, except for New York,” she said. “I mean— we’re going to go undefeated.” The first WPBL season is 15 games long, followed by semifinal and championship playoff rounds.
Each of the four teams: the New York Heights, the Los Angeles Queens, the Boston Hunters and the San Francisco Firebelles, have a talented roster of well-seasoned ball players and promising new talent.
Co-founder and league Commissioner Justine Siegal told amNewYork that the league represented a group of athletes who had already been playing the game at its highest level, and hopefully the WPBL will offer them a platform and a fan base equal to their talent.
“ Together, these women have been fighting and proving that women belong in baseball, and the WPBL is finally the chance they deserve to showcase how good they are and how fun they are to watch,” Siegal said.
New York Heights join the surge in women’s sports around America
Women’s sports have seen a surge in popularity, with viewership nearly tripling since 2020 and revenue growing 4.5 times faster than that of men’s sports between 2022 and 2024, according to a market analysis by McKinsey and Company. It’s a trend that showed Siegal and her co-founder Keith Stein that now was the time to launch the WPBL.
“ I love Major League Baseball,” Siegal said. “But I think that the world is ready to watch women play this great game as well.”
Apparently, fans in the Big Apple agreed when the league unveiled the team jerseys and launched its fan merchandise line on July 8; New York Heights merch sold out in under three hours.
But this year, NYC fans will have to travel if they want to see their team in person. The entire first season will be played on neutral ground in Springfield, IL, a city with historical significance to women’s professional baseball as the site of the first paid ticketed women’s game in 1875 between the Blondes and the Brunettes.
It has been more than seven decades since the nation had a professional women’s baseball league. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was founded by Chicago Cubs owner Phillip Wrigley during World War II, when many men were overseas fighting, and lasted from 1943 through 1954. Today, most people know of the league from the classic 1992 film “A League of Their Own.”
The AAGPBL was concentrated in the Midwest, so New York was not represented during the league’s short run. But New York has its place in women’s baseball history; in 1866, Poughkeepsie’s Vassar College played host to the first-ever women’s organized baseball team, the Vassar Resolutes.
Siegel said organizers had their eyes on the long-term sustainability of the WPBL, and hosting the first season in a single location would cut costs and help grow the league.
“ We’re really focused on getting the first season off the ground so that people can see how much fun it is to watch women play at the highest level,” she said. “But we certainly have our eye next year on doing much more in the cities that we’re representing.”
WPBL representatives told amNewYork that the league will announce the two streaming networks where fans can catch the games this week.
Strong enthusiasm may be a positive sign for the league’s future, as many women hope to evolve it into a full-time career.
“It’s been a fun process, and I’m just hoping the league really takes off and I can actually make a career out of it,” Studer said.
Pitcher Jacqui Reynolds, a third-round draft pick out of Massachusetts, told amNewYork that the league’s formation means more than just another season of sports entertainment; it’s a symbol of hope for girls who want to play baseball.
“ Just being able to say that I’m playing professional baseball was definitely a dream I had as a kid,” Reynolds said. “I know growing up, a lot of people have had that dream. I’m excited to be able to play for fans who also had that dream, and for fans that want to look forward to also having that dream of playing professionally with the younger generation.”
Growing up, Reynolds wasn’t allowed to play baseball, so in high school and college she played softball, a common compromise female players are asked to make. But after she tore her ACL during her college career with Southern New Hampshire University, something Reynolds has referred to as “a blessing in disguise,” she was able to make the shift to baseball.
She started in 2016 at a women’s baseball camp sponsored by the Boston Red Sox, where she learned of an all-female team called the New England Red Sox. Reynolds tried out and made that team as well as some mens teams. She’s now coaching at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, finishing up her sixth season.
The rivalries between Boston sports teams and New York sports teams are some of the fiercest in history with Red Sox vs. Yankees, Celtics vs. Knicks and Patriots vs. Giants matchups garnering outsized attention in sports viewing.
“ I’ve been on the Boston side of the rivalry for many years as a fan, so it’s going to be interesting to be on the other side of the rivalry for once playing,” Reynolds said.
She told amNewYork that her loyal fanbase in Boston wouldn’t let that get in the way of their unwavering support for her.
“There’s going to be a lot of people from Boston rooting for New York,” Reynolds said. “So that’s going to be a definite change which is going to be funny for my family since we’re all huge Boston sports fans. I know my friends and family are all going to support New York.”
For those who weren’t initially signed to a roster, the WPBL built out a pipeline of draft picks like 18-year-old Texas native, Abigail Moore, eagerly waiting for their chance to step onto the field. Moore, a New York Heights draft pick who didn’t make the initial roster told amNewYork that she’ll spend this season training and staying ready in the event that a player is injured or otherwise unavailable and she’s called into action.
Moore, a catcher, told amNewYork that the experience of even getting drafted to the New York Heights was surreal. She said that the league allows women, both new to the world of professional baseball and more seasoned players to support and learn from each other.
“It’s just been crazy because these women can relate to you in ways that no one else can,” Moore said. “They have similar stories, similar struggles.”
She was especially excited at the idea of representing NYC, a city with baseball in its blood.
“ Being a part of something so much bigger than myself, especially being able to wear New York on my chest and represent it with everything I have, I couldn’t be more proud,” Moore said. “It seriously is just so cool because you put that jersey on, and you know that you’re not only wearing it for yourself, but you’re wearing it for the city of New York. You know you’re wearing it for all of the young girls out there who have dreams of pursuing the same thing you did.”
