What Women's Baseball Will Look Like

"It was a regular workday, a Monday, for the rest of Washington, D.C., but inside Nationals Park, it was the final day of tryouts for the new Women's Professional Baseball League. This will be the first of its kind since the dissolution of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League-a wartime entertainment that gave hundreds of women the opportunity to play baseball in front of paying fans, but which fell apart in the early 1950s due to mismanagement and dwindling attendance."

"More than 600 players from 10 countries, including Japan, Australia, Canada, and Venezuela-places that have fielded successful teams in the Women's Baseball World Cup-had reported on the first day of drills and evaluation. The tryouts were led by Alex Hugo, a former player who won a silver medal with the U.S. team during the most recent World Cup and who said in a Monday press conference that the open-tryout format was designed to find "anybody that we would have missed just trying to search ourselves.""

Mosquitoes and the National Guard were present, but weather was clear and sunny for morning baseball at Nationals Park. Players displayed energetic dugout calls and celebratory gestures after successful plate appearances. The final day of tryouts for a new Women's Professional Baseball League took place, the first comparable effort since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League dissolved in the early 1950s. More than 600 players from ten countries underwent batting, fielding, and pitching evaluations led by Alex Hugo. Organizers narrowed the field to just over 100 for public scrimmages, and those chosen will be eligible for an October draft. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by Maybelle Blair, age 98.

Read at The Atlantic