The B.C. athletes that have been selected to play in the inaugural edition of the Women's Pro Baseball League in 2026 say they're hopeful it sets the stage for a sustainable future for women in a sport traditionally dominated by men.
Six B.C. athletes were selected in the first-ever WPBL draft last week, out of 20 Canadians in total, with the players all picked by four U.S.-based teams.
The upstart league is set to start play in the summer of 2026, with games taking place in Springfield, Illinois, which provides a central location for its four teams.
Liz Gilder, a left-handed pitcher who will suit up for the San Francisco team and was picked 49th overall, said she was quite often the only girl playing baseball growing up in Port Moody, B.C.
Women's Professional Baseball League will feature 6 B.C. athletes
"One thing that we've noticed over the years is at the ages between 12 and 14, a lot of girls will drop off from baseball and they'll switch over to softball," Gilder told CBC News.
"And that's kind of one of the things that we want to prevent."
Gilder, 24, who has played for the Canadian national team and Team B.C. over the years, says that she has seen a recent rise in interest from B.C. girls seeking to play "hardball" instead of softball.
An all-girls baseball league that she helped run for Baseball B.C. started off with only a couple of teams last year, but featured four times as many teams this year, she says.
"The [professional] league can start to shine light on other pathways for girls as well — like Team Canada, Team B.C., all these other opportunities that girls didn't even know existed that have always existed."
The upstart WPBL was co-founded by Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach for an MLB team, the
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