Revenue Sharing, Banana Ball Voting, Slot Machines, and More WPBL News
Plus: Social media growth, Ayami Sato's IBL season, and C.J. Silas' great podcast
Note: One of my goals for this blog is to stay up-to-date with the women’s pro game and to pass along interesting things I’ve read. Occasionally, I’ll group some of these tidbits together in one post as you see below.
News continues to trickle out following the historic Women’s Pro Baseball League tryouts last month. If you somehow missed the details and pictures, I highly recommend visiting the league website where they’ve done a great job sharing media coverage and pictures from the event.
Read on for more bits of recent news from the world of women’s pro baseball:
Just how well did the tryouts spread the word about the new league? Rachel Axon via the Sports Business Journal has a nice infographic of the social media impact in her recent women’s sports newsletter. The league’s TikTok account gained 30,000 followers. Unique website views are up 300% month-over-month. Across four days of tryouts, Instagram views reached 1.1 million. (I feel like I was at least a thousand of those. 🤣) Hopefully this engagement momentum continues through the draft in October.
Feeling lucky? The Hard Rock Casino in Rockford, Illinois just installed three custom slot machines themed for the Rockford Peaches of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Abreanna Blose via the Freeport Journal-Standard reports “exclusive Rockford Peaches memorabilia” will soon be on sale at the casino as well. Honorary Chair of the WPBL Advisory Board Maybelle Blair was in attendance for the unveiling and won $300 after pulling the lever – how’s that for great press?
Nick Wilson via the San Luis Obispo Tribune spoke with WPBL co-founder Keith Stein about game locations for the inaugural season. The league is prioritizing state-of-the-art player amenities when selecting a venue, with Stein telling Wilson the WPBL is “putting the players first.” Also nestled within Wilson’s article is the nugget that players will receive a “revenue cut” for participating, presumably in addition to their salary which is based on draft position.
There’s a chance I missed it earlier, but the revenue cut piece is something I haven’t heard about the WPBL before. Stein’s comment about player facilities and revenue share remind me of the new Unrivaled 3x3 women’s basketball league which features league equity for players as well as revenue sharing. Unrivaled and the WPBL are in two very different situations, of course, but considering how successful (and fun!) Unrivaled’s inaugural season was, it’s great to see some similarities.
Wilson’s article in the Tribune also highlights C.J. Silas, a baseball announcer and ESPN radio host who played a key role in the tryouts. She was emcee for the opening night event, moderator for the press conference, and also served as announcer for both exhibition games. I bring up Silas because she recently released a fantastic episode of her podcast recounting the weekend. It’s a great peek behind the curtain for the tryouts and an incredibly moving account of her experience and sense of belonging. The episode is 37 minutes long and well-worth a listen.
Ayami Sato’s time with the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club has come to an end (for this season, at least). The future WPBL star became the first woman to play pro baseball in Canada earlier this summer. The Maple Leafs made the Intercounty Baseball League playoffs this year but lost to the Barrie Baycats in the first round. Sato did not appear in any postseason games despite making the roster, presumably because much of the first round took place during WPBL tryouts. Sato finished her first IBL season with a 1-0 record, 9 strikeouts, and a 14.04 ERA in 16.2 innings (click here for full stats).
All-Star voting for the Banana Ball World Tour is under way and two future WPBL draftees are on the ballot. US Women’s National Team leadoff batter Ashton Lansdell is eligible as an infielder and WPBL face Kelsie Whitmore is on the pitchers list. I could go into their stats here, but stats don’t really matter in Banana Ball, do they? Those games are about fun, vibes, and entertainment, and these two women have my vote. Ballots close on September 8th at 5pm EST and the All-Star Game will be played in late October.
