For nearly every highlight of Julie Croteau's trailblazing baseball career — all except her time as a double in “A League of Their Own,” really — she shared the field with men. Frequently as teammates. Always as foes. That's mostly how it's been for generations of female players.
So when she recently heard about plans to give today's players the chance to shine against other women in baseball, Croteau had one thought.
“It’s about time,” she said with a chuckle.
The Women's Professional Baseball League (WPBL) announced plans last month to launch in 2026 as a six-team circuit for female players. If and when it debuts, it will be the first pro league for women since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — the one immortalized in “A League of Their Own” — dissolved in 1954.
Heightened interest in women's sports in recent years made this an ideal time to launch a women's baseball league, said co-founder Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach for an MLB team with the Oakland Athletics in 2015.
The consulting firm Deloitte estimated that women's sports will generate a billion dollars in global revenue in 2024 for the first time because of skyrocketing popularity and marketing deals. The WNBA had its most watched regular season in 24 years thanks largely to its star rookie class led by Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. The inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League brought in record crowds.
“Certainly we’re standing on the shoulders of the success of the other pro leagues,” Siegal said.
Siegal has sought advice from women leading other professional leagues and is studying what made them successful. That includes catering to the specific needs of female athletes — who often face a different set of responsibilities than their male counterparts.
Siegal was the first woman to coach for a professional baseball team with the independent league Brockton Rox in 2009, and the first woman to throw batting practice to an MLB team with Cleveland during spring training in 2001.
Back then, Siegal remembers scrambling to find babysitters for her daughter while she coached, and pulling her daughter out of school and bringing her along to the field in some cases.
“I had to do many things to make my dream come true,” Siegal said. “And so I am particularly keen on making sure that we don’t overlook mothers who can compete and deserve a place in the league.”
When she was 13, a coach told Siegal she shouldn't play baseball because she was a girl. She was told to play softball, which is a reality many girls in the sport face.
Around 1,300 high school girls played baseball on boys teams across the United States during the 2023-24 school year, according to a survey done by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
“When I see that number, I think that there’s 1,300 people who had to sort of basically buck the system to keep playing the sport that they love,” said Croteau, who made headlines in the 1980s by suing her high school for the right to play on the boys varsity team. She lost.
“They’ve had to stare down an athletic director or approach a baseball coach, and they’ve had to make it happen.”
More than 471,000 high school boys played baseball, while 473,000 girls played softball. The NCAA doesn't offer women's baseball, but nine women played on men's baseball teams in 2024, according to the NCAA's demographics database. Around 21,000 women played college softball.
Keith Stein, a lawyer and businessman who co-founded the WPBL with Siegal, said the hope is to help establish a solid women's baseball culture in the U.S. to create more playing opportunities for girls in the future.
Both Stein and Siegal pointed to early interest from women's baseball players as clues to the hunger for a venue for women to compete against women at the highest level. While there hasn't been a pro league for women's ballplayers, they still play. The Women's Baseball World Cup debuted in 2004 to showcase women's talent.
More than 400 athletes registered to try out within 24 hours of the league launching its player portal, Siegal said.
“These were largely elite players,” Stein added. “Some of the best players in the world — from the United States, of course, but there were players from Japan, Canada, Great Britain.”
The league will hold a scouting camp in spring 2025, with a draft happening in the last quarter of the year. The WPBL will initially launch with six teams, though Stein estimated that number could later increase to eight. They'll compete in the northeast in 2026 so that they can travel by bus to compete.
While Stein expects the WPBL to become one of the major women's sports leagues in the near future, it won't get there without facing some of the same barriers as the women's leagues that preceded them.
Women athletes have long fought to be paid as much as their male counterparts, perhaps most prominently displayed through the U.S. women's national soccer team's fight for equal pay that ended in the U.S. House passing an equal pay bill in 2022.
“We shouldn’t gloss over a certain reality," Stein said. "And that reality is that women baseball players, they probably are not being paid what they deserve."
Stein said he believes compensation will be suitable for players hoping to participate in the league, including those who have to relocate from different countries or leave their current jobs.
“But it will pale compared to if you’re thinking of what major league athletes in some of the other leagues are making,” he added. "That’s not what’s in place right now.
“We will get there because of what we do. We will raise the bar for pro women baseball players. But it will be gradual over several years.”
Croteau, who isn't connected to the WPBL, praised the league for trying to bridge the gap that has existed since long before she and teammate Beanie Ketcham were believed to be the first women to play in an MLB affiliated minor league in the now defunct Hawaiian Winter League 30 years ago.
“The girls who are out there playing on their own,” Croteau said, “those 1,300 girls that we’re talking about now, who we knew were good enough because they’re making the team. We also know they’re strong willed. They’re willing to buck the system and make it happen.
"This helps them get seen.”
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FILE - Massachusetts assistant baseball coach Julie Croteau watches the team during practice in Amherst, Mass., Feb. 28, 1995. (AP Photo/David Bruneau, File)
FILE - Justine Siegal throws during batting practice to Cleveland Indians minor leaguers during spring training, Feb. 21, 2011, in Goodyear, Ariz. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan, File)
Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including massive forced displacements that amount to ethnic cleansing.
A new report released by the New York-based rights group said people have been killed while evacuating under Israeli orders and in Israeli-designated humanitarian zones, where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps.
The report said the widespread, deliberate demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure in Gaza -– some of them to carve a new road bisecting the territory and establish a buffer zone along Israel’s border -– was likely to “permanently displace” many Palestinians.
“Such actions of the Israeli authorities amount to ethnic cleansing,” Human Rights Watch said.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the report.
Israel’s blistering campaign in Gaza has killed over 43,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to local health officials who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Around 90% of the territory’s population has fled their homes, with many displaced multiple times. The Israeli offensive has also damaged or destroyed around two-thirds of homes and other buildings in Gaza, according to U.N. assessments.
Israel says it does not deliberately target civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths, saying the militants hide among civilians and operate in residential areas.
On Wednesday, 15 trucks carrying aid were allowed into northern Gaza, where aid groups have warned that a monthlong Israeli offensive could cause a famine.
The trucks entered Gaza with aid from the United Arab Emirates, according to the military body handling aid deliveries into the territory, COGAT. It said the aid consisted of food and water as well as hygiene, shelter and medical supplies.
U.N. agencies did not immediately confirm the delivery of the aid.
Israeli forces have encircled the Gaza Strip’s northernmost areas for the past month, saying Hamas militants have regrouped there. Experts say the Israeli military campaign has caused a new wave of displaced civilians and warn that famine is imminent or may already be happening there.
Israel has also been striking deeper inside Lebanon since September as it escalates the war against Hezbollah.
The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Lebanon's Hezbollah group began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. Since then, more than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 14,200 wounded, the country's Health Ministry reported. In Israel, 76 people have been killed, including 31 soldiers.
Here's the latest:
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian state media are reporting explosions near the capital, Damascus, and the central city of Homs in what appeared to be Israeli airstrikes.
State news agency SANA said the country’s air defenses were activated against a “hostile target” south of Homs on Thursday. It gave no further details.
The agency later reported an explosion near Damascus, adding that the cause of the blasts was not immediately clear.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria targeting members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and officials from Iranian-backed groups.
JERUSALEM — Israel says 15 trucks loaded with aid have been allowed into northern Gaza, where aid groups have warned that a monthlong offensive could cause a famine.
The military body handling aid deliveries into the territory, COGAT, said the 15 trucks entered Gaza on Wednesday with aid shipped in by sea by the United Arab Emirates. It said the aid consists of food and water, as well as hygiene, shelter and medical supplies.
U.N. agencies did not immediately confirm that the aid was delivered to its destination inside northern Gaza.
Over the past week, the U.N. says aid trucks have entered the north but have not reached their final destinations due to Israeli movement restrictions and hungry crowds taking items from the trucks.
Israel has scrambled to ramp up aid to Gaza after a monthlong stretch during which aid plunged to its lowest levels this year.
The U.S. Biden administration warned Israel to increase the aid last month, saying a failure to do so could lead to a reduction in military support. The White House backed down this week, citing some improvements and ruling out any reduction in arms supplies, even after international aid groups said Israel had fallen far short of the American demands.
JERUSALEM — Human Rights Watch says Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including massive forced displacements that amount to ethnic cleansing.
A report released by the New York-based rights group on Thursday says Israeli evacuation orders have often caused “grave harm” to civilians. People have been killed while evacuating and in Israeli-designated humanitarian zones, where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps.
“The Israeli government cannot claim to be keeping Palestinians safe when it kills them along escape routes, bombs so-called safe zones, and cuts off food, water, and sanitation,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The report said the widespread, deliberate demolition of homes and civilian infrastructure in Gaza -– some of them to carve a new road bisecting the territory and establish a buffer zone along Israel’s border -– was likely to “permanently displace” many Palestinians.
“Such actions of the Israeli authorities amount to ethnic cleansing,” Human Rights Watch said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Human Rights Watch called on governments to stop supplying weapons to Israel and to comply with a July opinion by the International Court of Justice saying Israel’s presence in the Palestinian territories is unlawful and must end.
The group says its researchers interviewed 39 displaced Palestinians in Gaza, reviewed evacuation orders Israel has released throughout the war and analyzed satellite imagery and video of attacks along evacuation routes and in “safe zones.”
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. military says it has conducted several days of strikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The strikes included U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy aircraft, including the Navy’s F-35C stealth fighter jet, it said Thursday.
The military also released video showing a strike by an MQ-9 Reaper drone on a mobile missile launcher placed on the back of what appeared to be a truck. A person standing next to the launcher is seen running away after the strike.
“This targeted operation was conducted in response to the Houthi’s repeated and unlawful attacks on international commercial shipping, as well as U.S., coalition and merchant vessels in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said. “It also aimed to degrade the Houthi’s ability to threaten regional partners.”
The strikes happened Saturday and Sunday.
The Houthis launched an attack this week targeted two U.S. Navy destroyers entering the Red Sea. The Americans said they “engaged and defeated” eight bomb-carrying drones, five anti-ship ballistic missiles and four cruise missiles that the Houthis used to target the vessels.
For more Middle East news: https://apnews.com/hub/middle-east
Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of Maghazi in the Gaza Strip, during their funeral at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners carry their relatives who were killed in the Israeli bombardment of Maghazi in the Gaza Strip, during their funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of Maghazi in the Gaza Strip, during their funeral at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of Maghazi in the Gaza Strip, during their funeral at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Smoke rises between buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A man passes in front of destroyed buildings that were hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Firefighters check a destroyed building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Residents check their destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A man checks his destroyed shop at a street that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Firefighters try to extinguish a fire as smoke rises from a destroyed building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
