Women's Pro Baseball League shows on-field product at Red Sox spring site before inaugural season
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — A few yards from where the Boston Red Sox prepared for a spring training game Thursday, women's baseball players took the field for a different kind of exhibition — one for a league just taking shape. The Women's Pro Baseball League was in Fort Myers for a two-day event hosted by the Red Sox and held an intrasquad scrimmage Thursday, marking its first chance since last summer's open tryouts to bring players together and continue shaping the league's on-field product ahead of the start of its inaugural season on Aug.
1. A handful of players from the league's four teams — Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York — played a seven-inning game similar to those that will take place during the WPBL's eight-week season this summer at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois. Afterward, the league held a fan fest just before the Red Sox faced the Minnesota Twins, giving a chance for curious baseball fans to get a peek at what the upstart league will offer.
“We're fairly new (fans)," said Deb Stevens, standing next to her friend Linda Turner as they waited to get a baseball signed by players. “We're so excited and happy. It takes a long time for them to get to this point.
But they're going to kick butt. That's what I hope they do. ” At a workout Wednesday, WPBL players spoke of their dreams finally becoming reality in the WPBL, which will offer the first professional baseball league for women in the U.
S. in more than 70 years. But Thursday's game wasn't only symbolic.