WASHINGTON (AP) — There was a merging of generations on the final day of the Women's Professional Baseball League tryouts.
The 98-year-old former baseball pitcher Maybelle Blair kicked off the first of two live scrimmage games at Nationals Park by throwing out the first pitch to 24-year-old former Little league sensation Mo'ne Davis.
Blair, full of the same vibrance and wit she had when she helped inspire the baseball film “A League of Their Own” with her play in the All-American Girls Professional
Baseball League, was happy to symbolically pass the women's baseball torch.
She waited long enough.
“You have no idea what I went through when I was playing ball,” Blair said, "and how I wished that these girls could have the same opportunity that I’ve had. And it has come to reality. I never figured that we would have another league of their own. And here it is. And it’s my dream. Thank you for all being here. We’re going to make this thing go and show that women can play baseball."
Four days of drills concluded with Monday's live scrimmages. A group of baseball scouts and coaches, led by Team USA women’s baseball star Alex Hugo, a special adviser to the WPBL, whittled down a player pool of more than 600 tryout hopefuls to the final 100 players who will be invited to the league's draft in October.
The first three days of tryouts consisted of performance testing and drills at the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball academy, with cuts made at the end of each day. The final group of women were divided into four teams to participate in a pair of seven-inning — the length that WPBL games will be — live scrimmages at Nationals Park on Monday.
Coaches noted a wide range of talent across the four days. Some of the sport's biggest names, including Davis, USA baseball's Kelsie Whitmore and Japanese pitcher Ayami Sato are already signed to the league and automatically draft-eligible. But the WPBL kept its tryouts open to any women pursuing a shot at the pros. While there were plenty of tryouts attendees with baseball backgrounds, many were making the transition from softball.
Hugo, a two-time USA baseball Sports Woman of the Year, said the open tryout was designed to bridge the league with the international circuit — women's pro baseball has a strong presence in countries like Japan and Australia — and establish the right culture for the WPBL from the start.
“We have a standard,” Hugo said. “Obviously, we want to put the most elite talent level out there that we can, but this atmosphere and having an open tryout I think was super important, especially for the first year, because there’s so many people that want to be a part of this.”
The league will announce its teams by late September and has plans to announce front-office additions and celebrity partners by the end of the year. The league is working to secure a national broadcast deal before the start of the regular season, though it already has a media deal with Fremantle, the production company behind shows like “The Price Is Right” and “Family Feud," to produce and distribute broadcasts, create original content and secure sponsors as well as handle marketing.
Keith Stein, a lawyer and businessman who co-founded the WPBL with Justine Siegal, said the atmosphere at the tryouts was an indication of the appetite for a women's baseball league.
Fans of all ages were in attendance at the scrimmages on Monday, which were open to the public. Many were already sporting WPBL gear. Stein said the league sold approximately $20,000 in WPBL merchandise over a 24-hour period at the tryouts.
“But we haven’t done any marketing (yet)," Stein added. “There’s so much demand and support for these players and for our league. So you’re going to continue to hear a lot more about us.”
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