Introducing, the Los Angeles Queens.
LA’s Women’s Professional Baseball League team was one of four franchises to unveil its nickname and logo Wednesday ahead of the WPBL’s inaugural season. Los Angeles’ team name, like those of all four teams, was inspired by a pioneering figure in various fields.
The Queens were named after the groundbreaking Lizzie Murphy, aka the “Queen of the Diamond.” The Rhode Island native, who excelled in running, swimming and skating, became the first woman to play baseball professionally. Her trailblazing path started after she worked for local mills, some which had teams established by the mill or factory owner.
Murphy competed with a Rhode Island semi-pro team at 17 and later a team from Boston that played in the United States and Canada.
Murphy retired from baseball at age 41 and returned to work at mills and on oyster boats.
The Queens’ logo is a capital Q topped with four baseball diamonds.
The inaugural WPBL season opens Aug. 1 in Springfield, Illinois, where games will be played at historic 5,200-seat Robin Roberts Stadium. The season will run through late September and include playoffs.
LA’s roster includes center fielder Mo’ne Davis, who made history as a Little League sensation, Japanese pitcher Ayami Sato. At 13, Davis became the first girl to earn a win and shutout in the Little League World Series.
Other teams in the league are the New York Heights, whose nickname was inspired by civil rights and women’s rights leader Dorothy Irene Height; the San Francisco Firebells, a name inspired by Lillie Hitchcock Coit, known as “Firebelle” and considered was a champion of San Francisco’s volunteer firefighters; and the Boston Hunters, named after groundbreaking Boston physician and women’s rights activist Harriot K. Hunt.