{"id":419653,"date":"2026-07-31T16:34:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/419653\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:34:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:34:42","slug":"san-francisco-firebells-prepare-for-debut-in-wpbls-first-weekend-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/419653\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco Firebells prepare for debut in WPBL\u2019s first weekend \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois \u2014 Two years after it was founded, the Women\u2019s Professional Baseball League<\/a> will debut this weekend. Four franchises will play two games a few miles from where women first played professionally 152 years ago.<\/p>\n

The five-week, 30-game season will unfold in century-old Robin Roberts Stadium.<\/p>\n

The San Francisco Firebells<\/a> will play the Boston Hunters at 6:30 p.m. (Central) Sunday, one day after the Los Angeles Queens face the New York Heights in the opener.<\/p>\n

The first women\u2019s pro league in 72 years will honor the game\u2019s origins and its pioneers. Recently announced team names recognize a civil rights activist, a firefighter, a professional athlete and a physician.<\/p>\n

San Francisco volunteer firefighter and philanthropist Lillie Hitchcock Coit, known as \u201cFirebelle\u201d and who died in 1929, is the Firebells\u2019 namesake.<\/p>\n

A strong-armed outfielder\u2019s heave away, women first played professional baseball on Sept. 11, 1875. The Blondes met the Brunettes at the \u201cball grounds\u201d on North Seventh Street. The headline in the Decatur Republican newspaper announced \u201cThe beautiful Lady Base Ball Players\u201d as \u201cAthletes, Acrobats and Pedestrians.\u201d<\/p>\n

The WPBL will feature players transitioning from collegiate softball careers and others who developed their skills while only playing baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows baseball; everyone has seen the game being played,\u201d Arwen McCullough<\/a> of Livermore, a pitcher for the Firebells, said before a recent practice in Stockton. \u201cBut with women, it\u2019s different. It\u2019s not like softball. I just think everyone will see different personalities but in the same game that has been male-dominated.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCullough, founder and leader of the youth team that won the 2025 Baseball For All championship, is among several Northern California-connected women in the league.<\/p>\n

Kelsie Whitmore, the No. 1 pick, played for the Sonoma Stompers and more recently the Oakland Ballers, men\u2019s teams in the Pioneer League. Shortstop Kaija Bazzano of Sebastopol, a teammate of McCollough\u2019s at Cal Poly, also plays for the Firebells.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Kelsie (Whitmore) paved a pretty clear path for women in baseball,\u201d McCollough said. \u201cAnd there are a lot of other women. We\u2019re all different, but we are all coming together to play the same game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, the Firebells announced former Giants star Matt Williams will be their manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"KelsieKelsie Whitmore of the San Fransisco Firebells poses for a photograph at the WPBL team launch at New Era Flagship Store on July 08, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Caleb Bowlin\/Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n

While six teams were originally discussed, four materialized as the WPBL made intermittent progress toward its debut. Updates may continue until nearly the first pitch. ESPN announced Thursday that it had secured the U.S. streaming rights to all WPBL games for the league\u2019s inaugural season.<\/p>\n

Co-founded in 2024 by Justine Siegel, a coach and businesswoman, and Keith Stein, an attorney and professional hockey executive, the WPBL announced tryouts for August 2025 and attracted 600 women.<\/p>\n

The first teams and the league\u2019s draft were held last October and November and a training camp was held in March. Season ticket sales began in May and single-game tickets, ranging from $22 to $37, were available in June. Team names were announced in late July.<\/p>\n

The wooden host stadium was built in 1925 and was renamed in 1976 after the Hall of Fame pitcher who attended nearby Lanphier High School. It\u2019s the home field of the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes, a collegiate men\u2019s summer league that attracts about 1,000 spectators per game to the 5,200-capacity stadium.<\/p>\n

Like the women\u2019s game, Robin Roberts Stadium has endured struggles. Last year, its management was assumed by the non-profit Friends of Robin Roberts Stadium. The \u201cclamshell\u201d designed park doesn\u2019t have outfield seating and its current groundskeeper is the city\u2019s alderman.<\/p>\n

The stadium\u2019s long-tenured outfield banners have been replaced by WPBL sponsor banners. Stadium lighting is old and may be problematic for potential night broadcasts.<\/p>\n

Although each WPBL team drafted as many as 30 players, active rosters will include 15 players. Salaries will range between $300 and $500 per game. All lodging and meals will also be covered, according to a league spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

Several traveling women\u2019s all-star and pro leagues, exhibition teams and amateur squads in the past century had varying success. But all have failed.<\/p>\n

The last substantial women\u2019s circuit, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, started in 1943. Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley was concerned Major League Baseball might fold because of the increasing draft of young men into the military. The women\u2019s league, which used a larger baseball and shorter field dimensions, disbanded in 1954.<\/p>\n

The WPBL uses current major league parameters with a few exceptions. Games are seven innings and aluminum bats are used. Outfield dimensions at Robin Roberts Stadium have been shortened.<\/p>\n

The regular season game schedule will continue through Sept. 6. Three-game playoffs and a five-game championship series will follow. All will be played where the women\u2019s game began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPRINGFIELD, Illinois \u2014 Two years after it was founded, the Women\u2019s Professional Baseball League will debut this weekend.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2135,184,7,402,181,1334,395,101,396,103,102,104,106,105,127],"class_list":["post-419653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-baseball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-peninsula","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}