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 Oakland Athletics, in 2015.
Its management team also features Keith Stein, who owns a semi-professional men’s baseball team in Toronto.
When the WPBL debuts, it will be the first pro league for women since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — immortalized in the 1992 film A League of Their Own — dissolved in 1954.
B.C. pitcher says it’s surreal to be drafted in Women’s Pro Baseball League
Juliette Kladko, a 22-year-old left-handed pitcher who was drafted by the Los Angeles team 68th overall, noted that the launch of the WPBL comes amid a surge in interest in women’s sport.
Just this year, the first season of the Northern Super League professional soccer league wrapped up, Toronto began putting finishing touches on its Women’s National Basketball Association Team, and the Professional Women’s Hockey League expanded to Vancouver.
“I’ve been an athlete my whole life, I’m friends with female athletes and we work hard. We want the recognition,” Kladko told CBC’s On The Coast.
“And it’s very motivating to see all the … conversations that are coming up about hockey, WNBA, now the WPBL — and it just makes me excited about the future.”
Michelle Roche, a right-handed pitcher from Burnaby selected by the Los Angeles team 39th overall, noted that 20 Canadians were drafted in the inaugural edition of the WPBL.
In the much bigger men’s Major League Baseball — which features over 1,000 players — only 22 Canadians made a team’s roster for opening day.
“Especially looking back at the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, the AGPL. There was some Canadian representation back then as well,” the 20-year-old Roche said.
“So yeah, it’s super exciting to kind of continue that legacy.”
Roche said that the AGPL, which was formed during the Second World War as men were drafted to the army, represented the “first act” of professional women’s baseball history.
The second act, according to the pitcher, was the fight to allow girls to play in Little League baseball, led by New Jersey’s Maria Pepe in the 1970s.
“And now, sort of like the third act is like this ongoing story of women’s baseball. Now it’s our chance to show what we can do on a bigger stage, for the WPBL,” Roche said.
Women’s sports aren’t just having a moment, they’re having a movement
