The inaugural season of the Women’s Pro Baseball League is scheduled to take place at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois. The league is set to kick off on August 1, following the Women’s Baseball World Cup held in Rockford from July 22-26.
For the 2026 season, the league will feature four teams: Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Boston. San Francisco will have the first pick in the upcoming draft, which will follow a snake-style format. The draft will consist of six rounds, with each team selecting five players per round. Notable players like Mo’ne Davis, Kelsie Whitmore from USA Baseball, and Japanese pitcher Ayami Sato are expected to be top picks.
Robin Roberts Stadium was chosen as the league’s venue due to its central location among the founding clubs. The stadium, with a seating capacity of 5,200, recently upgraded with an LED videoboard. Springfield has a historical significance in women’s baseball, having hosted one of the earliest paid women’s games in 1875.
The Women’s Pro Baseball League was co-founded by Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach for an MLB team, the Oakland Athletics, in 2015. It aims to be the first professional women’s baseball league since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League ceased operations in 1954, as depicted in the movie “A League of Their Own.”