WASHINGTON -- Just after 9 a.m. ET on Monday morning, as many were in their morning commute, a group of about 100 women was preparing for a different job.
They were getting ready to play baseball.
The final of four days of tryouts to select the inaugural draft class of the Women’s Pro Baseball League kicked off as the final 100 women selected were split into four teams to play in a pair of seven-inning scrimmages. The group -- all of whom will be draft-eligible after making it through the final cuts, having been whittled down from the 600 initial participants -- stretched, warmed up and took the field for the first time as a cohort.
It was hard not to feel the energy in the air as Game 1 kicked off and children of all genders began milling around the stands, hoping to snag a foul ball. When the “home” team turned an inning-ending double play -- or later when there was an over-the-shoulder catch made to end an inning in Game 2 -- the crowd at Nationals Park erupted in applause.
There were women from Japan, Australia, Canada, and many of the 50 U.S. states. All told there were 10 countries represented. But no matter the difference in language, in accent, in appearance, there was one thing they all had in common -- well, two things: baseball, and sisterhood.
Many of the women in attendance had never played baseball alongside other women. They were used to taking the field as the lone girl on a team of boys. That’s part of what made the weekend so special.
“This is probably some of the most fun I've had, these last four days,” said Mo’ne Davis, whose resume is lengthy but who became a household name when she became the first girl to win a game and pitch a shutout in Little League World Series history. “The women here are incredible. They're very approachable.
“As soon as I walked up [Friday], the first two people came up to me, just started talking to me, having a normal conversation, and I kind of felt right at home. This is also my first time ever playing baseball with women, so I felt right at home. And it was just super fun out there. It's very competitive, and the energy is great. No matter what's going on, everyone's super supportive.”
Davis almost walked away from competitive sports over the past year. After completing a graduate degree at Columbia University, Davis wasn’t sure there was a place for her in sports anymore. But one flag football team later, her competitive drive -- “I hate losing” -- was re-ignited. When she got the call about the WPBL, she was sold.
“Just talking to people around me when I found out about the league and them just encouraged me to go out, like, ‘You're still young, you're still active, why not give it a chance?’” Davis said. “I never wanted to have a regret of not trying. So that's what went into it, but definitely having the flag football and losing games, and [I] hate losing, so wanted to get back out and be competitive. And the league came up, and it was just perfect timing.”
Like Davis, Kelsie Whitmore has been part of plenty of “firsts” -- but they’ve almost all been individual achievements. She was the first woman to play in the Atlantic League when she signed with the Staten Island FerryHawks in 2022. Now, though, she’s one of many women making history; it’s a position she’s not taking for granted.
“It's a great opportunity,” Whitmore said. “I'm grateful to be here, and I want to thank everyone that's here for being here, because that means you support what we do and the passions that we have. But isolation [in baseball] has always been real for me.
“So, back story: last night, me and a few of the girls, we went out to have dinner, and I was sitting in the car and … I paused for a second. I was like, ‘Girls, I'm just so excited about dinner with you guys. It's the first girls night out, and we're in a professional women's baseball environment.’
“This is the first time ever this is happening, and it was like, just the moment that gave me chills, because being a woman that's been in the male environment, trying to make friends, trying to know how to make conversations, not knowing how to hang out with them off the field, how do I get around with that? And so the little things like that mean a lot. And being able to have this league … it brings freedom. It allows you to feel so free with yourself, with what you love, with who you can be. And I'm really, really, really grateful for it, and I'm really looking forward to it.”
