{"id":421116,"date":"2026-08-01T20:56:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T20:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/421116\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T20:56:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T20:56:33","slug":"los-angeles-queens-vs-new-york-heights-wpbl-discussion-thread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/421116\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Queens vs New York Heights \u2014 WPBL Discussion thread"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Today, for the first time since 1954, women\u2019s professional baseball will take the stage, and it\u2019s a moment worth commemorating. Welcome to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.womensprobaseballleague.com\/schedule\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Women\u2019s Professional Baseball League<\/a>. (Cory Cohen published a primer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.purplerow.com\/colorado-rockies-discussion\/97803\/purple-row-after-dark-who-are-you-supporting-in-the-wpbl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">First, a note is in order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">We realize that Purple Row is a Colorado Rockies site, and none of that will change. But we do want to provide a discussion space for those who want to follow this new league, so we\u2019ll be pinning a discussion thread on our homepage to facilitate fan discussion and support this new league in its early days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Today\u2019s game features the Los Angeles Queens and the New York Heights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">On the mound for the Queens will be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/bullpen\/Ayami_Sato\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ayami Sato<\/a> who is arguably one of the most decorated baseball players in the world. Having made her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/bullpen\/Women%27s_Baseball_World_Cup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Women\u2019s Baseball World Cup<\/a> debut for team Japan in 2010, Sato has gone on to win the tournament six times and earn its MVP award three times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Outside of the World Cup, Sato\u2019s resume includes a variety of stops in various leagues around the world but none were longer lasting than her tenure in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Japan_Women%27s_Baseball_League\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan Women\u2019s Baseball League<\/a>. Sato pitched in JWPL from 2013 through 2019 (the leagues final season) and led the league in strikeouts five times. Sato was the second overall pick in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.womensprobaseballleague.com\/prospect-ranking\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the initial WPBL draft<\/a> last November.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Taking the ball for the Heights will be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/bullpen\/Rak-yung_Kim\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rakyung Kim<\/a>. Having been a two way player for most of her career \u2014 she was the first women to hit a home run in the Korean men\u2019s college league \u2014 Kim was drafted 11th overall as a pitcher by the Heights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Kim played for South Korea in both the 2016 at the age of 15 but it was the 2018 version of the tournament that she came into her own. She led the 2018 World Cup in both strikeouts (but also walks) while also seeing time 3B, RF, and 1B.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Opening ceremonies begin at 3:00 pm with first pitch at 3:50 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, for the first time since 1954, women\u2019s professional baseball will take the stage, and it\u2019s a moment&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1613,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-421116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-general","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421116","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=421116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}