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The 97-year-old Blair, who helped inspire the
baseball film “A League of Their Own” with her play in the
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, will chair a
board of women who have worked in sports and business. The list
includes a leader from the upstart Professional Women's Hockey
League, a longtime ESPN executive, and baseball pitcher and
six-time World Cup winner Ayami Sato.
“We have been waiting 70 years for a women’s professional
baseball league,” Blair said in a release from the WPBL, "and it
means so much for the girls. It is going to be our great
opportunity and we must take advantage of it now.”
The WPBL aspires to be the first pro league for women since the
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League dissolved in
1954. Co-founders Justine Siegal, who is the first woman to
coach for an MLB team, and Keith Stein, a lawyer and
businessman, both said the league's goal is to establish a solid
women's baseball culture in the U.S.
In preparation for its first season, the league will hold a
scouting camp in spring 2025, followed by a player draft later
in the year. The league plans to play a regular season, playoffs
and championship in the summer of 2026.
Blair plans to throw the first pitch in the WPBL opener.
“I have so much respect for Maybelle and all of the All-American
Girls Professional Baseball League players,” Siegal said in a
release. “The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
set a precedent on what’s possible in women’s professional
baseball.
"It is important to me, and the WPBL, that we honor the legacy
and impact of their League while building a new future for
today’s players who dream of playing professional baseball.”
The rest of the board includes Nona Lee (former Arizona
Diamondbacks chief legal officer), Laura Gentile (former ESPN
CMO and founder of espnW), Kate Childs Graham
(speechwriter/communications strategist), Dr. Kat Williams
(Founder/CEO of International Women's Baseball Center), Dr.
Leslie Heaphy (chair of Society of American Baseball Research's
(SABR) Women in Baseball Committee) and Digit Murphy (President
of Toronto Six hockey team).
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