In a historic step for the sport, the Women’s Pro Baseball League has named trailblazer Justine Siegal as its first commissioner, tapping the longtime advocate, coach and co-founder to lead the fledgling circuit into its inaugural season.
The announcement, made Tuesday at the league’s spring training camp here in collaboration with the Boston Red Sox, places Siegal at the helm of baseball operations, player development, strategic planning and global outreach as the WPBL prepares to open play Aug. 1.
“This is beyond anything I ever dreamed,” Siegal said. “It’s a humbling opportunity to help shape the league and the future of women’s professional baseball. Girls now have the chance to become professional baseball players, just like their brothers have for decades. Now is our time.”
Siegal, who co-founded the WPBL, will draw on more than two decades of barrier-breaking experience. A Cleveland native who fell in love with the game at her grandfather’s side at Indians games, she persisted through coaches who insisted girls didn’t belong on the diamond. In 2010 she launched Baseball For All, the nation’s premier organization for girls’ baseball, which has supplied more than one-third of the players selected in the WPBL draft.
Her résumé is dotted with firsts: the first woman to coach a professional men’s team (Brockton Rox, 2009), the first to throw batting practice to major-league clubs (beginning with the Indians in 2011) and the first female coach hired by an MLB organization (Oakland Athletics, 2015). She has coached internationally with Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic, in Japan’s professional league, Mexico and Baseball United in the Middle East and South Asia, and served as baseball coordinator for Amazon Prime’s “A League of Their Own.”
The National Baseball Hall of Fame displays the Athletics jersey she wore during her historic 2015 stint, and USA Today once listed her among the 100 most powerful people in MLB.
The timing is fitting. The WPBL opened its first spring training camp this week in Fort Myers, featuring 20 of the game’s top athletes working alongside former major-leaguers. The two-day session launched the league’s 2026 Countdown Tour, a series of exhibition games, fan events and “WPBL Group Chat Live!” appearances that will crisscross the country in the months ahead.
The four-team league — New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco — will play its regular season and playoffs from Aug. 1 through mid-September at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Ill. Kelsie Whitmore, the No. 1 overall pick in the WPBL draft, called the appointment well-deserved.
“Justine has been involved in the game of baseball for years,” Whitmore said. “It is very well deserving of her to receive this opportunity. I am proud and excited that Justine is representing our league as the commissioner.”
In a personal letter released Wednesday, Siegal reflected on the long road that brought the league to this moment.
“Across the USA and around the world, women have always played baseball,” she wrote. “Baseball is America’s pastime, but the professional game hasn’t evolved to reflect the diversity of those who play, watch and love this sport. That’s about to change.”
She called the WPBL “a league of their own” — the first since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940s — and a stage for elite talent as well as a pipeline for every girl who dreams of the highest level.
With opening day less than five months away, Siegal’s appointment signals more than a front-office hire. It is a clear message that professional baseball is finally ready to make room for the women who have long played it at every other level. The next chapter begins this August. For those who have waited, it has been a long time coming.
