Five Favorite Quotes from the WPBL Tryouts Presser
Co-Founders Justine Siegal, Keith Stein, and superstar Kelsie Whitmore talk historical impact, the future, and next steps
The inaugural Women’s Pro Baseball League tryouts concluded one week ago today. Amidst a pair of exhibition games featuring the final group of draft hopefuls, the league hosted a press conference at Nationals Park with league founders, stars, coaches, and dignitaries.
Getting the “@wpbl_official is live” notification that morning was a welcome surprise. I didn’t make the trip to D.C. to watch the tryouts and there was no opportunity to tune in via broadcast or streaming, so I spent much of the weekend refreshing Instagram to follow along. The league and players in attendance did a nice job sharing pictures of the event, but being able to watch the full press conference on Instagram was an unexpected treat.
Those on the panel discussed the historic nature of the weekend and the league shared a few tidbits for the immediate future of the WPBL. Below I’ve transcribed the five quotes that most stood out to me.
1. Keith Stein, Co-Founder:
We have the two most famous women in the world to use a glove and play with a ball and a bat. The two most famous women on the planet.
So, big deal for us. We are honored. Besides them, we are loaded with women superstars.
Stein, of course, was referring to Kelsie Whitmore and Mo’ne Davis.
If there was any question about how the WPBL was going to market its product, Stein’s emphatic praise of these two players put it to bed.
Whitmore has made history at seemingly every stop of her baseball career. She was introduced to many baseball fans in 2022 when she became the first woman to play for an MLB Partner League, suiting up for the Staten Island FerryHawks. Davis is a bit of a throwback who rose to fame in 2014 when she pitched a shutout in the Little League World Series and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
These two women are going to be the face of the league. (I love the picture below of Kelsie literally posing with her own likeness at the tryouts.) The WPBL will need to draw in diehards and casual fans alike to thrive. Stein is correct that the fame of Whitmore and Davis is most likely to succeed in that regard so it’s a great sign to see them front and center.
The best part? There are so many exciting players and trailblazers beyond Whitmore and Davis once the fans are drawn in. Other personal favorites of mine who attended the tryouts include:
Ayami Sato, Toronto Maple Leafs pitcher and the first woman to play pro baseball in Canada
Ashton Lansdell, Ole Miss softball star and Bananaball web-gem generating Party Animal
Val Perez, Firefighters head coach, US Women’s National team medalist, and the profile pic for this Substack
I could go on. Alli Schroder, Denae Benites, Amanda Gianelloni… but that feels like the topic for a future blog post instead.
2. Kelsie Whitmore:
Competing with men, I had to make the transition of throwing a lot more off-speed. I ended up adding a lot more different pitches, mixing up my timing, different holds, quick pitches, all that different stuff.
… Being here, I could be that conventional pitcher I grew up being. I want to throw 70% fastballs rather than the flip side of 70% off-speed.
There’s a lot more to this quote you can see in the full video that I cut out for brevity. But I thought it was really interesting to hear Whitmore talk about how she’s excited to just be herself in the WPBL, both on and off the field.
It’s so cool to see Whitmore compete in the men’s game on the Oakland Ballers or Savannah Bananas. Don’t get me wrong – I still hope we get our real-life Pitch moment of a woman in MLB someday. Until that happens, I’m pumped for Whitmore to have the opportunity to just be herself and carve up the competition more frequently than in sporadic international women’s competitions.
3. Kelsie Whitmore:
The word integration, that is huge. Yesterday someone spoke about it and was like, “How does it feel to be in a women’s professional baseball integrated league?”
… I didn’t realize when Maybelle [Blair] was playing, there was only a certain color that can play with her, right? And that’s huge, and I love it. I love that we’re having so many backgrounds, cultures, girls from other countries. That’s how it should be. And it gives me chills, honestly.
Hearing Whitmore say this gave me chills, too.
Integration was a topic of conversation in the 2022 Amazon Prime series A League of Their Own, but the lack of color in the AAGPBL is a fact that unfortunately didn’t stick in my brain. When you pull back and examine the “Face of WPBL” conversation above and realize that this entire league will be marketed on the backs of two women of color, that’s incredible to see.
It wasn’t just American players who attended tryouts last week. Press conference moderator C.J. Silas said ten countries were represented amongst the 600 players who participated in tryouts. Ten countries! I truly wonder what percent of the player pool hails from Japan, the country that has dominated international women’s baseball competitions for many, many years.
The league is doing their best to make this an international affair. According to their FAQ page, they’ll be hiring translators and sponsoring visas for those who need them, plus offering housing for all players.
The inaugural season will be just seven weeks long. I wish it was longer, but hopefully the focused schedule is easier on logistics for some of these high-quality international players. I want to see the best of the best in the entire world play in this league with the highest level of competition possible.
4. Keith Stein:
We will be announcing our teams within the next four weeks.
… That will precede our draft, which is taking place in October. That will be the dispersal draft. All the great players here today will comprise our teams.
A huge shout-out to the reporter who asked this question. These are the logistics I need to hear!
It’s been reported that the league’s inaugural season will feature six teams playing at one or two locations primarily in the Northeast. Teams will be approximately 15 players deep. Now we know when these team announcements are coming.
Fingers crossed that they decide to stream the dispersal draft, because I need to see that. A list of draft-eligible players would be fun to dive into as well.
5. Justine Siegal, Co-Founder:
I don’t have to stand there and wonder what’s next, because I know what’s coming.
What's coming is a women's pro baseball league that’s going to be here from now to forever. My grandchild's going to play in this league and I'm just so grateful. The future is very, very bright.
Hearing Justine speak throughout the weekend, watching videos of her peers talk about her and all the years of work she has put in to get here… it’s truly inspirational.
It’s amazing to see her and the league reach this moment. People love sports because they love watching their favorite players, and this past weekend was the first opportunity we had to see the potential player pool take the field. Women hitting and pitching in t-shirts adorned with the WPBL logo makes this whole thing feel more tangible than it ever has, and that’s part of the reason I’m so excited.
There are still more steps to go before Opening Day 2026 (a national media rights deal would be a huge step), but I love hearing Siegal talk about longevity. Baseball is a sport steeped in legacy, in record holders, in numbers and lore. Major League Baseball’s longevity is part of what makes it interesting.
I can’t go back in time and watch the Knickerbockers’ first game. But I can go see the first hit, the first strikeout, the first win in WPBL history next May. The idea of getting in on the ground floor as a fan of a brand new league and being able to follow it for years to come is thrilling.
Thanks for reading. What were your favorite quotes from the press conference? What question do you wish had been asked? Drop a comment below!
You can (and should) watch the full presser from Nationals Park by clicking here.
