The Sounds of Silence

The recently-formed Women’s Professional Baseball League has announced plans for a six-team league starting in 2026. As the father of a female athlete who started in baseball before jumping—or being pushed—to softball, I can only wish them well, but… According to an AP story on the league that ran in the Sunday Sun-Times, stats for 2023-24 show some 473,000 girls playing high school softball vs. 1,300 in baseball. That gives you an idea as to the uphill climb the idea of women playing baseball faces. Here’s another—crickets from MLB. No mention of MLB on the WPBL website and no mention of the WPBL on mlb.com. What, Rob Manfred and friends are afraid of a little competition?