r/WPBL

Game Thread: NY Heights @ SF Firebells (8/19 6:30pm CT)

Feel free to use this thread to talk about today's game!

Live Game Center Sheet on the WPBL website. This page has line and box scores as well as other team information.

I thought this was a great article that touches on some of the issues with the league, particularly in its treatment of drafted players. I hope this league is able to succeed while also protecting its players. Thanks to the writers and interviewees. Also.... Let's Go Hunters!!! And tbh everyone else =)

I've read that players have the choice to use metal, wood, or composite bats. Do we know anything about how many batters are using various types of bats? Or any individual players?

Boston Hunters infielder Denver Bryant will be our special guest on the WPBL Podcast, recording tonight with host Ashton Lansdell, and dropping early Friday morning.

If you have a question and/or comment for Denver, let me know!

Big fan here. I know it's still very early in the season. But how would you grade each team's first round picks for making an early impact?

SF: Kelsie Whitmore, Amanda Gianelloni, Joely Leguizamon, Jill Albayati, Samantha Gutierrez

LA: Ayami Sato, Ashton Lansdell, M'onee Davis, Meggie Meidlinger, Thaima Maximiliana

BO: Hyenoah Kim, Alli Schroder, Raine Padgham, Lexi Hastings

NY: Kylee Lahners, Denae Benites, Rakyung Kim, Valerie Perez, Jaida Lee, London Studer

i've noticed that there hasn't been a whole lot of coverage or interviews done with the japanese and korean players in the league (eg: ayami sato, natsuki yonetani, jua park, hyeonah kim, etc.) and i'm curious if there are any translators provided for the league or individual teams? i've seen ey jr bring his phone out (presumably w a translator app) to talk w sato on the mound but i'd really be interested in hearing from the players directly on how their experience w the league has been thus far.

Hey all, we have tickets for the game on Thursday and are in the area camping in an RV. Anyone familiar with the area know if there is suitable RV parking available? Or should we try and uber/lyft. Thanks!

Edit: thanks everyone we will plan to uber/lyft from the campground. Appreciate the info! (Go Heights!)

Where does a girl go to get some WPBL cards because i want them! Please say I am not the only one

What are the chances for a restock? Really like the hunters green hat and orange brim, but missed it first time around, and none of the two-tone hats have ever come back in stock afaik. Do we think they will all restock eventually or should I go for the all green that’s in stock?

Just disappointed that someone with a big following of baseball lovers and women isn’t taking the opportunity to uplift the new league. Maybe it’s all quid pro quo and the league isn’t funded enough to pay influencers to talk about the league but I just find it odd and disappointing!

Game Thread: BOS Hunters @ NY Heights (8/16 6:30pm CT)

Feel free to use this thread to talk about today's game!

Live Game Center Sheet on the WPBL website. This page has line and box scores as well as other team information.

Just some thoughts after yesterday's Boston - New York game. I watched later that night when I got home after going to see the SF Giants lose at Oracle Park...haha (and one reliever - one of the a***le homophobes - walk in a run for the Rockies, so it's not just us!)

Anyway, like an earlier poster, I agree that it's disheartening as a baseball enthusiast to watch games be won or lost by walking in runs, getting hit by pitches, and a whole lot of fielding errors. Ouch! But I think, in addition to what the earlier poster said about not having deep enough pitching rosters leading to exhausted and demoralized pitchers, that it has a lot to do with very disparate amounts and types of playing experience.

These women come from many different journeys, some from softball, some from college baseball, some from youth baseball development camps, some from Team USA, and a very few have played in professional baseball in some fashion or another either in the US or abroad - and it shows. There's no "real" structured farm system either, so essentially what I feel like I'm seeing is a handful of women who belong at the pro level playing against a larger roster of women who would be in Low A Single A, and a reasonable but not large enough number of AA and AAA players.

Until there's a way for women to get a lot more playing time, off-season payroll, and more serious investment in the sport, i think it's going to struggle like this. It reminds me of what I saw in the Rockford Women's Baseball World Cup semifinals in July: you had teams like Team USA, Australia and Canada who have been playing together for many years and developing their skills. Some of them have played professional baseball. And it was so painful for me to watch them utterly destroy teams like Team Hong Kong, which is probably a lot newer and the players with a lot less experience. Mexico held their own against less experienced team rosters, but couldn't compete in total against the US, Canada or Australia. (I'm looking forward to next week's Taipei semis but nervous for the brand new UK team).

In the MLB, some of the WBPL players would simply be relegated to a lower level farm team, or fall out of the system all together. And I'm certainly not saying that the women's games should be exactly like the men's game. I don't think that's ever going to be the case and I think we need to appreciate and enjoy the differences in the women's game. I know I am. But even comparing it to the PWHL - a lot of those women not only have competed at a very high level in college alongside other women on women's teams, but there's also a women's Olympic hockey team and there isn't the same thing for baseball. Women who have played baseball, not only softball, alongside men in college, and women who have played on the US national team for many years, are playing a lot more skillfully than those who don't have that experience.

I know we're all eager for expansion teams, but I wonder where those players are going to come from if we don't have enough. Highly skilled players on the inaugural four teams as it is. And there's also not enough money in it. The MLB has thrown in with women softball, which doesn't interest me in the slightest. And I know that's true for a lot of you, you may be softball fans alongside being baseball fans, or you may just be baseball fans, but you want baseball and not just softball.

Reflections?

Hi all! I'm heading to Springfield next weekend with my daughter. I've been keeping my eye on the SF Firebells merch online but haven't had any luck. Do they sell merch at the stadium? I'm worried we won't be able to get any and I'd love to at least get some hats!

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