SPRINGFIELD, IL — Sean Plaskett and his 7-year-old daughter, Shawn, drove 1,700 miles from Wilmington, Delaware, to Springfield to be part of the Women’s Pro Baseball League’s inaugural game at Robin Roberts Stadium Aug. 1.
Plaskett said his daughter’s favorite player is Los Angeles Queens outfielder Mo’ne Davis.
Davis is one of the top attractions of the league. Earlier this year, Davis signed with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Banana Ball League and who could forget in 2014 when Davis became the first girl to pitch a shutout in Little League World Series history?
“We’ve been talking about this (game) for the past month,” Plaskett said before the game. “We’ve been watching YouTube clips of Mo’ne Davis. We follow the WPBL on their YouTube Channel. We’ve been keeping up with the growth of the league and we’re super, super excited to watch (the game).
“Every mile, every minute of the drive was worth it.”
The baseball world turned its collective eyes towards the capital city as it hosted the first women’s pro league game in over seven decades.
A sold-out crowd of 4,000–several sections of the stadium were tarped off–endured about a 90-minute delay because of rain before seeing the Queens defeat the New York Heights 10-8. The San Francisco Firebells debut against the Boston Hunters at Robin Roberts Stadium at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 2.
The WPBL has acknowledged and embraced the history of its predecessor, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which operated from 1943 to 1954 and included the short-lived Springfield Sallies. Maybelle Blair, a former AAGPBL player who turns 100 next year, threw out one of the ceremonial first pitches.
Jeanene Lesko and Dolly Ozburn, who played in the AAGPBL and will be part of a meet-and-greet at Motorheads Bar & Grill, 600 Toronto Road, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Aug. 2, also were acknowledged in pre-game introductions.
Also throwing out first pitches were Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher and Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa, who managed the Iowa Oaks of the American Association in 1979 when Springfield had a AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals in the same league.
There was more star power when Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Martha Reeves (Martha Reeves and the Vandelles) sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Marcia Lane-McGee of Chicago wore a Rockford Peaches replica uniform to the game.
Baseball is “a thing” in Lane-McGee’s family. Her father was drafted by the New York Yankees and spent a year in their minor league, so she grew up watching the sport.
Lane-McGee acknowledged being present for the game was historic.
“I’m grateful it’s a new league,” she said. “It was diminishing calling us ‘girls.’ These were strong women who were playing baseball and they were stepping in and stepping up when the men were at war. The WPBL shows we are women. We are strong.”
Lori Anda of Menomonie, Wisconsin, attending the game with Gail Skamfer, said it was gratifying seeing women fulfilling their dreams.
Growing up in Chicago and Paxton, Illinois, Anda said she wanted to try out for Little League baseball but wasn’t allowed.
“To see that there’s actual baseball for women, that’s something we wanted to make sure we saw, so here we are,” Anda said.
More than a dozen people from around the country met up at the Little Corner Bar, 1601 E. Converse Ave., hours before the game.
Jeff Nemecek, who has owned the bar with his wife, Missy, since 2024, said Liz Bigler of Atlanta, Georgia, reached out to the couple via Facebook about a pre-game gathering.
Nemecek said the bar’s proximity to the stadium, about five blocks away, made it a natural gathering spot.
“I didn’t know if there would be one person or 100 people here,” Bigler admitted.
When she found out about the WPBL, Bigler wondered if there would be any games in Atlanta.
“When I found out all the games were going to be in Illinois and I was like, what?” she said, with a laugh. “I just got a wild hare.
“It seems like a historic event, pretty monumental. I’m interested in women’s sports and women’s achievements. I wanted to be here to say, yes, I was at the first game.”
Karen Clark, also part of the gathering at Little Corner Bar, said she played three sports at the now-defunct Green Mountain College.
Clark watches other women’s professional sports leagues and hoped the WPBL would be around “for a very long.
“Women’s sports are getting a lot more viewership. It’s great to see that they’re able to do the same thing as men. I was one of those people who was told years ago, you have to switch to softball, you can’t play Little League anymore.”
Clark is spending 10 days in Springfield and “I want to see as much as I can. I’m going to take advantage of getting a lot of steps in, walking around, looking at the different sites.”
Waiting in line to get into the stadium with her 6-year-old daughter, Eliana Lynn, Christina McMahon of Edmond, Oklahoma, said it was her dream to play baseball, but there wasn’t a league for her to play in growing up.
McMahon said she has taken Eliana to games “before she could walk. She wasn’t too interested in coming to this game until she found out it was girls playing.”
Jamie Toole, the president of Golden Rule Entertainment, which owns the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes of the Prospect League, admitted it was an emotional day “seeing the gravity of the situation, seeing all these fans and these players in their uniforms and all the work that’s gone into this. It’s very gratifying. I’m so excited for the city to host this. The players and the staff, everyone has told me how much they love Springfield.”
Toole reached out to WPBL founder and commissioner Justine Siegal about Springfield landing a game, but Siegal said she “might be able to do better (than one game). My co-founder, Keith Stein and I got on the phone and now here we are.”
Siegal, speaking to The State Journal-Register last week, said the WPBL does have a plan for 2027, “but we’re still going to take what we learn this season and implement it in the next. Next year, we do expect to do a bit more in the cities that we are representing as well as the possible expansion.”
There is still talked-about possibility that the league could return to Springfield in 2027. Toole will oversee the league’s “developmental league,” a sort of minor league for the WPBL.
Buscher said she was still trying to decide which WPBL team to follow.
“I think (the league) is amazing,” she said. “As a woman, I’m proud. I want the community to not lose the momentum. I’m super-excited to go and partake and cheer them on.”
Polly Poskin of Springfield said she also wanted to play baseball growing up, but was pre-Title IX.
Looking around the stadium, she was encouraged by the numbers.
“I think people have been wanting this,” Poskin said. “I think this will continue to draw a crowd. It’s good stuff.”
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Eyes of baseball turn towards Springfield as history is made
Reporting by Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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By Steven Spearie, Springfield State Journal-Register | USA TODAY Network
