Welcome to the Women's Pro Baseball Fan Blog
Hi, I'm Justin! Read about my baseball background, my introduction to the women's game, and my plans for this Substack.
About the Author
As blog post ideas bounce around in my head, I thought it would be prudent to introduce myself and give potential readers a sense of who is behind the keyboard.
My name is Justin Jabs. My day job is a data analyst at a local non-profit. Much of the rest of my waking hours are spent thinking about baseball.
How I Became a Baseball Fan
I played a bit of youth baseball as a kid (catcher/left field), but I became a deep fan of the game when I was 15 years old.
My late grandfather passed down his Chicago Cubs fandom to me, but my interest was surface level. Casual. I started working at a scout camp in the summer of 2007 and my coworker was a legit Brewers fan who loved giving me crap about not knowing many Cubs players’ names.
I returned home with renewed focus to learn more about baseball. (That’ll show him.) One of the first ballgames I watched after camp featured this incredible catch in the ivy by Cubs outfielder Sam Fuld. Finally, I had my first favorite player and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Prior to joining the non-profit sector, I worked at a brewery here in Milwaukee. Prior to that, though, I spent five seasons in the business side of front offices around Major League Baseball.
For a guy whose early baseball fandom was spent booing Ryan Braun, it’s a bit ironic that my first real job out of college was selling season and group ticket packages for the Milwaukee Brewers. Yet I genuinely fell in love with the team during my time with the Crew. Driving to Miller Park for work every day, connecting with fans, and watching Eric Thames rip dingers (for free!) never got old.
My role in Milwaukee was entry-level, so I spent the summer of 2017 interviewing for account executive jobs around the league. I chatted with the Royals, the Mets, and the Padres, but in the end it was the Oakland Athletics who wanted me. A few months after my wife Stephanie and I got married, we packed up our lives and embarked on what we called our “California Adventure.”
Although we didn’t know anyone in the Bay Area, many of my new coworkers were in the same boat as the A’s built out a brand-new group sales department. The 2018 and 2019 season featured some of my life’s fondest memories both inside and outside of the ballpark. I got to experience playoff baseball as an employee for the first time alongside new friends I’ll remember for the rest of my days.
Like many in the industry, the COVID-19 pandemic took my dream job away. With no baseball games to play I was furloughed and eventually let go.
We ended up moving back to Milwaukee to be closer to friends and family – a genuinely great silver lining I am thankful for to this day. But honestly, it took a few seasons to reignite my baseball passion. We still love going to games (24 ballparks and counting!) and cheering on our favorite players.
Now when people ask me for my favorite team, I say I’m more of a general baseball fan. It’s an amalgamation of Cubs, A’s, Brewers, and fantasy baseball-fueled fandom, cheering on whatever t-shirt I pull out of my closet that day.
My Introduction to Women’s Baseball
But this blog isn’t about Shōta Imanaga, Jacob Wilson, or William Contreras. It’s about players like Ayami Sato, Valerie Perez, and Denae Benites.
My first exposure to high-level women’s baseball came in August 2023. Stephanie and I were preparing to attend a Kenosha Kingfish game at Historic Simmons Field, former home of the Kenosha Comets in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. We caught wind that the US Women’s National Team would be playing a scrimmage and signing autographs that afternoon before the Kingfish game in preparation for the Women’s Baseball World Cup qualifiers.
The pregame action was hands-down the best part of the day. It was so cool seeing two teams of women competing head-to-head on the field. The entire national team signed a bat for us – they were so kind and generous with their time. It didn’t hurt that we got to meet a few AAGPBL alumni and actors from A League of Their Own (one of my all-time favorite movies) as well.
Stephanie and I had such a great time we decided to travel to Canada in August 2024 to watch the Women’s Baseball World Cup finals. How often do you get the opportunity to witness the peak of an international competition like that? The United States hadn’t won since 2006 and history was on the line. Although our Team USA favorites finished with the silver medal, it was such an awesome experience being in that environment and continuing to learn about the women’s game.
Fast-forward to August 2025. It’s been months since the Women’s Pro Baseball League launch announcement, but my hype has reached new heights as prospective players finally took the field for tryouts last weekend. I spent all four days glued to Instagram to catch glimpses of the action, feeling some massive FOMO that we didn’t make the trip to Nationals Park. Thankfully, we’re already planning to attend the inaugural WPBL Opening Day next May.
About the Women’s Pro Baseball Fan Blog
So, I don’t actually spend all of my free time thinking about baseball. I enjoy playing board games and video games, reading, watching movies, and I’ve always been interested in writing.
When I was younger I’d write short stories and chunks of novellas that would never see completion. I experimented with baseball blogging (RIP Baseblog) in college and studied journalism. I even spent some time as the Editor-in-Chief of the UWM Post.
I’ve wanted to get back into writing lately but inspiration for my next (first?) great fiction project has proven elusive. Meanwhile, I find myself telling anyone who will listen about the new women’s baseball league on the horizon. This Substack seems like a happy marriage of those two impulses and so the unofficial Women’s Pro Baseball Fan Blog was born.
What This Substack is Not
Before we get to my plans and goals for this project, let’s first talk about what this blog is not.
I am in no way affiliated or endorsed by the WPBL. This is an unofficial blog. I’m simply a future fan who is interested in writing about the league. Although it would be cool to talk to players or officials some day, I am not trying to represent myself as a journalist with breaking news. (Although I will be tapping into those old media student lessons to ensure everything I’m sharing is fairly communicated and well-cited.)
Unless this blows up beyond my wildest dreams to the point where I could quit my day job, I do not have any plans to turn on paid subscriptions for this Substack1. This is simply an outlet for my writing and baseball obsession, and I hope everyone who reads it enjoys it.
What I Hope this Substack Will Be
That doesn’t mean I only want to talk to myself. These are exciting times with a new baseball league on the horizon! I want to help spread the word of what’s coming, and hopefully be a way to connect fans like me with information they are interested in. I feel like there’s a space and hopefully a demand for fans to talk about the game.
This blog will be an area for my musings and opinions on professional women’s baseball. I want to journal about my experience attending women’s baseball games and interacting with players. If we get access to league stats, I’d like to flex my data muscles and do some deeper analysis. I want to talk about merch, about memorabilia, about fun stories, about wins and losses and records in the making.
And although original reporting is unlikely, I’d like to help curate league news and coverage from media outlets to keep myself and others informed. I am a longtime reader of the Cubs blog Bleacher Nation and have long found their curation efforts valuable in staying connected to the game.
I make no promises to myself about the frequency of posting. Maybe weekly, maybe more often, probably less. I promise that whatever hits your inbox will be something I feel is worth sharing. If you’re interested in the WPBL and want to join me for the ride, please subscribe and get in touch.
Thanks, and happy reading!
- Justin
If you are so compelled to financially support this project, however, click here.
Thanks for setting up your blog. I hadn't heard about the WPBL before, and am looking forward to hearing more about it.