There are three kinds of baseball fans.

I belong to the group that loves the game. The tension of the pitch count and the different situations. Where to position players. Hitting strategy. Pitching strategy. Running. Fielding. The whole gamut.

The other two kinds are people who are baseball fans because it’s a social activity, or are loyal to a team in their city or birthplace. I have all the respect in the world for the other two groups.

But my group is the one that can watch any baseball game at any level – and get caught up in what’s happening on the field.

Because I love baseball so much, it bothered me that women didn’t play it professionally. At least not since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded after the season in 1954, the year I was born.

Women played softball. The participants are incredible athletes, but as a baseball fan, I find softball hard to watch. 

I’ve always believed women could play baseball – that softball was this left-handed (so to speak) way of telling girls they could not grow up to play on a field with the same dimensions on which boys and men play.

Which is why I welcomed the arrival of the Women’s Professional Baseball League earlier this month.

I’ve watched a few games – fortunately, I have Disney+, so all the games are streaming on it this inaugural season. And, at the risk on being accused of mansplaining this effort to establish a beachhead, I have a few thoughts.

First, if you like baseball the way I described, you should watch the WPBL.

The 60 women on the four teams are good at the game. Some of them are out-and-out amazing. I always they could be and this season proves it convincingly. 

Women make the throws across a regulation diamond. Women make the pitches from a regulation distance from home plate. Women make acrobatic defensive plays in the outfield. 

And while the fences are certainly shorter than they are in men’s professional league, there are women who can hammer the ball. One home run I watched traveled a respectable 370 feet at nearly 100 mph – that’s not cotton candy.

Here’s another reason you should watch it: Unlike Major League Baseball, it seems as though the WPBL players do a better job of putting the ball in play.

One of the complaints people have about the majors is that the proliferation of guys who throw 95 miles an hour and above have made contact much less frequent. Batting averages are lower than they were a generation ago, meaning there are fewer singles and extra-base hits. There are, conversely, a lot of home runs, because if you can turn on a 101 mph fastball, the ball is going to travel a long way.

So the complaint about boring major-league games doesn’t fly in the WPBL. 

Again, not that women can’t pitch. Curveballs and breaking balls seem to be the standard here. Which is fine. You can appreciate that Jacob Misiorowski can throw a 105 mph pitch and Kelsie Whitmore can throw at 83 and think they’re both pretty good. I’ve seen some of the WPBL pitchers throw some nasty hooks.

But I do have a couple of criticisms. They have nothing to do with the game on the field.

First, I understand that this is a fledgling league trying to minimize costs in order to get started.

The initial season is being played in its entirely in Springfield, Illinois. Even people in Chicago don’t go to Springfield. It’s out of the way and hard to get to. And you’re trying to get parents to fly or drive their kids – particularly, but not exclusively, their daughters – to see these games.

It’s disheartening to see weeknight games with smaller crowds than a high school lacrosse match. And maybe I’m being a little big city chauvinistic here, but do people in Springfield, Illinois, have that many better things to do than watch professional sports in their hometown?

If the WPBL is going to succeed, it needs to be in the cities on the front of the uniform. And, if having the league spread across the continent is an expense problem, set up four leagues in narrow regions – and then have the winners come together at a neutral site for a playoff.

My other criticism is the quality of the announcing.

The ESPN Select announcers have improved from early in the season, when they seemed more focused on what color batting gloves the women were wearing and miscalling the plays on the field.

But I think the way the broadcasters present the game, it seems as though they think a presumed large female audience needs to learn what baseball is. 

Women know as much about baseball as men do. 

My mother taught me how to keep score. My daughter made an unassisted triple play when she played softball as a preteen. As a Met fan, I see women on social media who know more about the sport than the blowhards who spout on sportstalk radio. 

Even my wife, who married into baseball and doesn’t care that much for it, knew that Matt Harvey was too gassed to pitch the 9th inning in Game Five of the 2015 World Series.

Don’t womansplain baseball to women. If members of your audience don’t know about the game, they’ll pick it up the way the rest of us did, with great announcers describing the action.

Two last points:

Major League Baseball could be entering a very long, cold winter. The collective bargaining agreement between owners and players expires in 2027. And there is talk that the owners might lock the players out of spring training and even the regular season if they don’t get the salary cap they seek.

The WPBL is a prime position to profit from a shutdown. People like me who love the game will get to spring itching to see players on a diamond. 

Be ready. MLB is going to want to divert fans to the women’s softball league it promotes.

I want to see baseball. The WPBL is good enough for me.

Second, I wonder if the new league is encouraging the pipeline that feeds professional sports. Are girls’ baseball teams forming as a result?

The WPBL is going to need qualified talent. It should be out there promoting girls’ leagues, including in the Caribbean where men have traditionally played all year long. Or in the warm weather portions of the U.S. – Florida, California, Hawaii.

The important thing is that if you like baseball, you should catch the WPBL before its season ends next month. It’s the greatest game – and these women might very well be the stewards of the sport in 2027.

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