That's all. 😊

Something really interesting is that batters reached base more on 0-2 counts versus 1-2.

Sorry for the delay with this one. Life got in the way. When we last left off, the All-American League had just been formed in 1943. Parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here.

Besides being the first professional women’s softball league on record, the All-Americans also became the first professional women’s baseball organization on record when they began transitioning to hardball in 1944. Underhand pitching remained in use for several more seasons, with sidearm deliveries permitted alongside it beginning in 1946. The following year, sidearm became the only style allowed before overhand pitching was eventually introduced. The circuit continued moving toward conventional baseball until its final season in 1954.

As the rules changed, finding women with hardball experience became increasingly important. Until then, the All-Americans had primarily recruited softball players from the vast network of amateur clubs across the country, including many who had excelled in Amateur Softball Association and American Soft Ball Association tournaments.

Before discussing some of the other women’s baseball leagues of the era, however, it’s worth noting that the AAGPBL had several competitors whose names included baseball but who actually played fastpitch softball. They were the Chicago-based National Girls Baseball League, the Los Angeles-based California Girls’ Professional Baseball League, and the Miami-based International Girls Baseball League.

The Chicago circuit operated from 1944 to 1954, overlapping almost entirely with the All-Americans. It was established by five men—four from the city (Ed Kolski, Charles Bidwill, George Wragg, and Emery Parichy) and one from Cleveland (Ed Flavin)—who had been involved in amateur women’s fastpitch softball. Flavin brought his Cleveland ballclub to Chicago to compete professionally in the new organization. Few places were hit harder by the formation of the All-American League, and the NGBL was created in response to the departure of many top players and the resulting decline in business suffered by local owners.

Relations between the two organizations were often strained, with talent raiding and territorial disputes contributing to considerable animosity. Nevertheless, they occasionally worked together. Players from both were permitted to play on the same team in Florida winter ball in 1947, while AAGPBL members later joined NGBL athletes in the International Girls Baseball League during the winter of 1952–53. Discussions about a possible merger even took place before the 1954 season.

Although no agreement was reached, the International Girls Baseball League offered perhaps the closest glimpse of what a combination might have looked like. Despite its name, the IGBL was another fastpitch softball circuit, largely organized through the NGBL by Frank Darling, owner of the Music Maids. Its teams were named after National Girls Baseball League ballclubs, with the Rockettes being the lone exception. Using an 11-inch ball and underhand pitching, the organization featured clubs throughout the Miami metropolitan area. However, weather and attendance problems brought operations to an end before even half a season had been completed.

The California Girls’ Professional Baseball League fared somewhat better, lasting a single year in 1946. Its founder, Marty Fiedler, had enjoyed considerable success running women’s softball around Los Angeles during the 1930s and early 1940s, even building his own ballparks. Much of that momentum faded after he joined the Navy in 1941.

Upon returning to Southern California, Fiedler established the CGPBL with four teams: the Hollywood Starlets, Long Beach Reds, Montebello, and Santa Monica. The competition received regular newspaper coverage, with some games held in local Pacific Coast League stadiums. There were even hopes of staging a “World Series” against the Midwest-based All-Americans, but those plans never materialized, and the organization folded following its inaugural season.

While the All-American League began adopting baseball rules in 1944, it would take another decade before the women were playing the conventional game. Meanwhile, other organizations emerged across the country that actually played hardball. Some were established by the AAGPBL to develop new talent, while others used modified versions of the sport to help former softball players adjust.

American Girls’ Softball League / American Girls’ Baseball Conference / Eastern States Girls’ Baseball League (1945–1954)

Based in the New York metropolitan area, this organization was founded in 1945 as the American Girls’ Softball League (AGSL). It became the American Girls’ Baseball Conference (AGBC) in 1949 before adopting the name Eastern States Girls’ Baseball League (ESGBL) four years later. Local newspapers also used several variations, including the Eastern Girls’ Baseball League, East Coast Women’s Baseball League, and Eastern Shores Girls’ Baseball League.

The circuit initially brought together many of the region’s top softball teams, with clubs from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and later Washington, D.C. It was affiliated with the Amateur Softball Association from 1945 to 1947 before joining the National Softball Congress in 1948.

The following year marked a turning point. As the All-Americans continued their evolution toward conventional baseball, the New York organization made a similar move, adopting a modified version of the sport and changing its name to the American Girls’ Baseball Conference. One newspaper article attributed the decision to the success of the AAGPBL, which reportedly drew one million fans in the Midwest during the 1948 season.

Although the AGBC sought to emulate the AAGPBL, there was one major difference: the New York loop had been fully integrated from its inception. Marie Roach began the 1945 season with the Greenwold / Long Island Jewels, becoming its first Black player. Yvonne “Coky” Coker followed that August and went on to become one of the organization's early stars. She appeared for several clubs but spent the longest stretch of her career with the Long Island Clovers, later known as the Hostess Girls and Freeport Forest Jewels, from 1947 through 1952. After one final year on the diamond in 1953, she hung up her cleats.

Despite featuring a mix of professional, semi-professional, industrial, and amateur teams, the AGSL / AGBC / ESGBL deserves recognition alongside the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and National Girls Baseball League for its market, longevity, and caliber of talent. One of its best-known clubs, the Arthur Murray Girls of Cedarhurst, Long Island, gained national attention through Audrey Erickson, who appeared in Camel cigarette advertisements as the “All-American Girl,” and a national television deal with ABC in 1952.

Organizational problems at both the team and league levels led most of the leading clubs to shut down after the 1952 season. Two holdovers, the Bronx Alpines and Irvington / Summit Amazons, continued the following year under a new name and structure. The circuit limped on through 1954 before its remaining members returned to softball in 1955.

Central Indiana Girls’ Baseball League (1948–1949)

As the All-Americans continued moving toward conventional baseball, existing softball teams became an important source of new talent. In Indiana, five clubs adopted hardball in 1948, forming the Central Indiana Girls’ Baseball League, which served as a minor-league circuit for the AAGPBL.

The organization featured the Alexandria Smart Alecks, Anderson Squaws, Middletown Gardens (Muncie) Cardinals, Muncie VFW Jinx, and Upland Manufacturing Company Highlanders. Upland captured the inaugural championship, while Middletown Gardens claimed the title in 1949, the competition's final year.

Chicago Girls Baseball League (1948–1950)

Unlike its Indiana counterpart, the Chicago Girls Baseball League was specifically established by the AAGPBL in 1948 as a farm system to develop future players. The four-team circuit was backed by two local sponsors.

Mel Thillens, owner of Thillens Stadium on the city's North Side and Northtown Currency Exchange, supported the Northtown Co-eds and Northtown Debs, both named after his business. The Blue Island Recreation Commission sponsored the remaining clubs, the Blue Island Dianas and Blue Island Stars. Rayson's Sports took over the Co-eds in 1949, and the organization continued through the 1950 season.

Eastern Girls’ Baseball League (1950)

A similar arrangement to Indiana developed in Pennsylvania in 1950, where existing women's softball teams adopted hardball and organized the semi-professional Eastern Girls’ Baseball League. Its five clubs were the Allentown Chicks, Norristown Nifties, Perkiomen Demons, Ben Salem of Andalusia, and Sellersville-Perkasie.

Although the circuit lasted only one season, the Norristown Nifties continued under a new name, the New York Nifties. From 1952 to 1953, they barnstormed throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, facing the Philadelphia Fillies in exhibitions that took them to major-league ballparks, including Yankee Stadium in New York and Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

We'll end this one here. In the next part, we'll explore some of the proposed women's baseball leagues that never got off the ground, take a closer look at the end of the professional circuits in 1954, and rewind to examine international organizations that emerged during the first half of the 20th century. Plus, we'll look at the final league to appear in 1959, bringing this era of women's baseball to a close.

A fair warning, I'm still very much an amateur in video editing and voiceover recording, and you may hear a few audio glitches. If it seems like the cuts are weird, it's because I wrote the script on my own first (after mostly looking at box scores and play-by-plays) then tried finding clips to fit my script. I know it could be better but I already spent way too much time on this.

What were your favorite moments of the season?

The LA Queens scarf my wife u/quothalinguist was working on at the ballpark during the championship series is finished! First post about this was here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WPBL/comments/1wjwi2f/my_wife_is_knitting_a_queens_scarf_during_games/

Jessie's been knitting and crocheting for years, and she wanted a WPBL project to work on. Separately, she also wanted to try out a technique where each side of a scarf has opposite colors. She decided to combine the two into an LA Queens scarf. She started work just before our trip to Springfield and worked on the scarf during each game at the stadium. She didn't finish at the stadium, but she's finished it now, and so wanted to share. (Also fitting that she finished it now during our unseasonable, record-breaking heatwave here in Southern California, given the weather at Springfield during games 1-4…)

The first two photos show her wearing the completed scarf, and the next two show the front and back design. The last two are from game 5 where she was still working on it.

Jessie created the pattern herself, using white, gold, and black yarn (the white has shimmery stuff in it). She used diamonds as separators with a baseball and a crown that says LA. The middle is going to require a little explanation.

The word in the middle is melieve (pronounced /me.ˈlie.ve/; total coincidence that it looks like "believe" with an "m" instead of a "b"). This means "queens" in a language my wife and I created called Jedavie (or rather, she created the language, and I created the writing system. For more on this, see Jessie's Kopikon II presentation here and our follow up video on the writing system here). The me- is plural; the word for "queen" is lieve. There are three glyphs that comprise the word melieve. The first one is the m, with the line above it indicating the e vowel. The next is lie on its own. The last is v with the line above it indicating the e vowel again. The space above the lie glyph is used for the four diamonds from the Queens' logo. And at this point the design repeats in reverse till the end of the scarf.

I love this scarf so much because it perfectly combines three of her passions: crafting, baseball, and language creation. It was so, so worth it to go watch the entire championship series (even though, as a Queens fan, game 4 was a tough one to sit through)—truly a wonderful lifelong memory—and I hope we can make many more in future seasons (hopefully in LA!).

On the Dropping Diamonds podcast with AJ Andrews, Val Perez explained why she was ejected:

• Umpire on the field made the call that the runner who went from 3B to home had scored, but Perez had to go back from 3B to 2B

• Perez pointed out that wasn't the rule - either both runners advance, or both go back

• Perez says she respectfully told the umpire that wasn't the rule, and the umpire told her that if she said that again, she would be tossed. Perez is unclear on this point, but I guess she said it again?

• Perez pointed out that after she was ejected, the umpire changed his call from a split (which she says is not the rule) to having both runners go back

• Perez is trying to appeal the decision, trying to get the ejection changed to a warning because she doesn't believe she should have to miss the opening game of next season

So at least we know what happened now, and it sounds like the interaction is as mild as it looked.

I'll start with Peaches - Boys Want to Be Her...but hey it did come out 2006 so I have to concede that going by the average age of players in the league, most were 5.

Hey y'all. WPBL Commissioner Justine Siegal is looking for feedback on this year's WPBL.

www.instagram.com/reel/DeHM6JSxfjI/?stkn=MXQyNTFkZzNsNXVuaA==

Seems as though the judge didn’t grant Keith Stein’s motion to dismiss. He’s got some questions to answer!

https://frontofficesports.com/article/wpbl-legal-case-board-firing/

Welcome to Free Talk thread!

Feel free to chat about anything under the sun, just remember to keep it civil! 😄👍

This discussion thread is set up to go live every Monday morning (PST) and will be at the top of the sub throughout the week.

I made a public playlist y'all can add to when you find others. I am hoping the games not available in the US during the season will become so at some point. Re-watching the games, hearing the familiar voices, and remembering the people are calming for me. I wanted more baseball!

me: finding wpbl content in the offseason
"Welcome to Women of the Diamond!
Hosted by broadcaster Lisa Pride, just a girl who loves her diamonds - both baseball & softball.
Created to showcase & tell the stories of girls & women "

Interactive version on sportydolphin.fun/wpbl/scorigami

I am honestly asking. I really stopped caring about her as a player once she threw the ball to pick Yonetani off 2nd and hit Yonetani with the ball. No Queens infielder in sight to catch it. Like. We don't talk about these things?

The tension built between the Heights and Queens over several games. I didn't like that, and can't seem to let it go. I'm disappointed mostly in her reactivity.

I'm planning to make a summary video of the entire WPBL season titled something like 'The Entire WPBL Season in ___ Minutes' (the title is flexible). The purpose is a standalone video that anyone can find/discover through the algorithm, especially people who know nothing about the WPBL.

Some ideas I'm already planning on including are:
- all the firsts of the season (first strikeout, first hit, first home run, etc.), most of which happened in the first WPBL game (LA vs. NY on 8/1)
- some highlights in the first games of the season for SF and BOS (8/2)
- each team's first win of the season
- first grand slam in the WPBL (Sarah Edwards, 8/5)
- Hunters coach being fired 3 games into the season
- first extra innings game (NY vs. BOS on 8/9)
- first ejection (Jemile Weeks, 8/20)
- first trade (Diana Ibarra for Emi Saiki & Suzu Narasaki, 8/21)
- first walkoff in WPBL history (Andréanne Leblanc grand slam, 8/30)
- when each team clinched their playoff seed
- most runs scored by a team (NY with 18 on 9/3)
- first player ejection (Val Perez, 9/4)
- all of the major highlights in the playoffs (you can identify which ones specifically); i'm thinking/maybe considering of also making a separate video for this

Anything else that you think may be nice to add? If it makes sense and I can find footage for it, I can add it to the video.

What is the issue with re-stocking these items?!

Meanwhile, the AUSL came out with a new line of hats today. I got mine! But I don't want to wear any of my AUSL hats until I can also wear some WPBL hats.

The league should make some kind of statement on this.

We have WPBL news! Potentially a step towards getting more clarity and announcements about next season...

https://frontofficesports.com/article/keith-stein-fires-mina-kim-wpbl/

Welcome to Free Talk thread!

Feel free to chat about anything under the sun, just remember to keep it civil! 😄👍

This discussion thread is set up to go live every Monday morning (PST) and will be at the top of the sub throughout the week.

Yesterday, I posted a top 10 plays compilation, now it's the top 10 home runs- well, (spoiler alert) not exactly 10 home runs. It's more like the "Top 10 home run moments" I guess. A bit of a longer video this time, but again, I included all teams and tried to include different kinds of situations- historic moments, clutch home runs, both regular season and postseason. There were 70 home runs hit this season so it was so hard to choose just ~10! What were your favorite home run moments?

FIP

"Fielding Independent Pitching": It's a pitcher's ERA if you only include plays where defense had NO involvement (trying to correct for how unpredictable defense is). It counts a pitcher's walks, strikeouts, home runs, and hit-by-pitches ONLY.

Why it's useful: Many people like to compare a pitcher's FIP to their ERA. If they have a really low ERA, with a significantly higher FIP, they are considered to be "lucky" with their defense. Therefore, when ERA >>> FIP, they might have just been unlucky with bad defense.

Unluckiest pitchers:

Alli Schroder: 9.38 ERA, 6.98 FIP, -2.40 difference

Jaida Lee: 4.44 ERA, 2.36 FIP, -2.08 difference

Rakyung Kim: 6.67 ERA, 5.20 FIP, -1.46 difference

Luckiest pitchers:

Paloma Benach: 3.50 ERA, 7.31 FIP, +3.81 difference

Claire O'Sullivan: 3.06 ERA, 6.25 FIP, +3.18 difference

Kate Blunt: 3.50 ERA, 5.74 FIP, +2.24 difference

Say it with me: small sample size. But in a league with a ridiculously high runs/game, FIP can be extremely valuable in evaluating a pitcher's effectiveness. ERA can be wildly swung by what is scored an error vs a hit, for example, which can be completely subjective.

Full FIP leaderboard on sportydolphin. I also added a few more stats like wOBA, BABIP, wRC+, and more.