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Decades after women had a league of their own, as it was called in that movie, there is a new women's baseball league. Spring training for the Women's Pro Baseball League opens today. Becca Costello of member station WVXU in Cincinnati went to the ballpark.
OLIVIA BRICKER: So grab your gloves, grab a ball and grab a partner, and we'll get throwing.
BECCA COSTELLO, BYLINE: Olivia Bricker, one of the players in the new Women's Pro Baseball League, is leading a skills clinic in Cincinnati, Ohio, surrounded by about a dozen girls. Many of them, including 11-year-old Lilah Kuehn (ph), say they mostly play with boys, and it's fun.
LILAH KUEHN: Some people think that girls should play softball and that baseball is, like, for boys.
COSTELLO: Bricker heard the same message over and over since she started playing at age 4 at her dad's baseball academy.
BRICKER: Growing up, I always knew I wanted to play professional baseball. And when they announced the WPBL, it was really emotional because this is what I've always wanted to do.
COSTELLO: The new league has four teams in New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Bricker, a pitcher and outfielder, will play for Boston. She says girls today face many of the same challenges she did, and she loves coaching and mentoring young players.
BRICKER: They listen well. They want to learn. They're hungry for the game of baseball. They ask a lot of questions. So the competition is there. The work ethic is there. The mindset is there.
COSTELLO: Professional women's sports have grown exponentially in the U.S. over the past few years. WPBL co-founder Justine Siegal says it's exciting to see women's sports finally get the attention they deserve.
JUSTINE SIEGAL: The athletes have always been there, right? Women have always been playing well. But now, with all the different streaming and ways to experience the different sports, we're now getting to see it, right? We're not stuck with five channels telling us what's important.
COSTELLO: Siegal grew up playing baseball, and her career includes a lot of firsts, like being the first woman to coach for a Major League Baseball organization. Siegal was a guest coach for the Oakland A's instructional league, working with top prospects and newly drafted players in 2015.
SIEGAL: The true light bulb moment was when my daughter was born. And it was just this moment where I could see that if she wanted to play baseball, I had to make sure she didn't face the same discrimination I faced.
COSTELLO: Siegal launched the nonprofit Baseball For All in 2010, a girls baseball organization that now has more than 40 teams across the country. Nick Roll (ph), the co-founder of Ohio's Miami Valley Valkyries, says his baseball-playing daughter inspired him to start this all-volunteer effort.
NICK ROLL: Girls getting a chance to play on coed teams is great, but we just don't see a reason why this shouldn't grow to the point that we're having all-girls recreational ball and higher-level competition ball and everything else.
COSTELLO: The Valkyries hosted that first WPBL skills clinic in Cincinnati and brought Olivia Bricker back to her hometown to coach. Bricker says it's rewarding to help build a better world for young players, knocking down all the misconceptions about women's baseball. People often ask, do you have to wear dresses, like in the last professional league?
BRICKER: So no, we don't have to wear the dresses. We're wearing regular baseball pants. But in 80 years - it took 80 years for women to be able to have a league to call their own. And I think this is just the tip of the iceberg and just the start of it. We are growing, and I know it's going to get bigger after Year 1.
COSTELLO: Spring training is the kickoff to the WPBL's Countdown Tour. The league plans exhibition games and fan events across the country ahead of the season kickoff in August.
For NPR News, I'm Becca Costello in Cincinnati.
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