The Japan Times - Women's Pro Baseball League completes four days of tryouts

More than 600 women from 10 nations began four days of evaluation at Nationals Park, the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals.

From there, the group was trimmed to the final top talent to compete on four teams over two seven-inning scrimmages on Monday as scouts begin to assemble ideas on talent for first-year clubs, all of them eligible for the first league draft in October ahead of next May's launch.

"Not a moment, a movement," the WPBL said in social media posting on X. "Not a trend, a transformation. More than a league, a turning point."

Mo'ne Davis, a 24-year-old American, was the first girl to win a game and pitch a shutout in Little League World Series history when she competed against boys in the 2014 youth baseball showdown.

"This is probably some of the most fun I've had, these last four days," Davis told the MLB website. "The women here are incredible. They're very approachable.

"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."

After a graduate degree at Columbia University, Davis almost left behind competitive sport, but was among those attracted to what the WPBL could offer, a group that included women from Australia, Japan and Canada as well as Americans.

The league "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."

Kelsie Whitmore, who played in the men's minor leagues in 2022 for the Staten Island FerryHawks, has already signed a deal with the WPBL, the league posted on its Instagram site.

"It's a great opportunity," Whitmore said. “I'm grateful to be here and I want to thank everyone that's here because that means you support what we do and the passions that we have.

"Being able to have this league... it brings freedom... I'm really grateful for it, and I'm really looking forward to it."

T.Maeda--JT