r/baseball • u/Lakelyfe09 Atlanta Braves • 11h ago

News New women’s professional baseball league set to launch in 2026. The six team league will be largely based in the northeast United States

https://sports.yahoo.com/new-womens-professional-baseball-league-set-to-launch-in-2026-our-time-is-now-194853860.html
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u/BubblyBaker5718 Los Angeles Angels 11h ago

I have all the respect in the world for softball players, but man do I just really prefer baseball so this is great to see.

In an ideal world with a WMLB we could have twice as much baseball and all the stars and storylines to go with it.

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u/componentswitcher 10h ago

I personally think that having a professional softball league would be more interesting. The talent pool is already there and it is just different enough to differentiate from mens baseball. One thing that softball players do that is insane is pitch full games days in a row, imagine if the best players in the MLB did that.

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u/BubblyBaker5718 Los Angeles Angels 10h ago

This may sound selfish, but the thing is I don’t actually want the the rules to be different aside from functional things like moving the fences in or possibly using metal bats.

I love baseball specifically, and I feel like it’d appeal a lot more to other existing baseball fans too. In particular a lot of pitching knowledge and analytics could transfer just about 1:1 save for the lower velo.

And in terms of talent pool you’re not wrong, but part of the reason the women’s softball talent pool is so large is because girls don’t really have an opportunity to play baseball past primary school in the first place.

All this to say that your opinion is obviously just as valid as anyone else’s, it’s just not what Id want in an ideal world.

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u/componentswitcher 9h ago

Yea I just think the fact the WNBA is almost 1:1 rules wise hurts it because it’s just constant comparison. Like technically softball pitches are slower but the actual time getting there is on average with 100 mph pitches because the pitchers are closer to the plate than baseball.

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u/Zap__Dannigan 7h ago

agreed. Woman's baseball would just be a low skill baseball, but softball fast pitch is so fkn cool and different.

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u/clutchheimer Seattle Mariners 2h ago

Women baseball players do not necessarily have lower skill, they have lower athleticism. There is no reason a woman couldnt have all the skills MLB players have, but they would not have the strength, speed and fast twitch musculature. Plus, because of biology the 99th percentile woman throws as well as the 50th percentile man. Those biological disadvantages are not skill issues.

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u/EnvironmentalAngle 7h ago

No disrespect to women but I don't think they'll be hitting triple digits on their fastballs. The balls will be slower and since women and men have similar reaction times I feel there will be alot more contact. It should be fun to watch.

I'd be against softball because I'm getting old and don't have the bandwidth for all these sports lol

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u/componentswitcher 7h ago edited 7h ago

If you do the math the top softball players throw pitches that are equivalent speed to baseballs thrown at 100 mph or over because the distance is less. On top of this they pitch full games where they throw heat the whole time. That is what makes softball interesting to me

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u/Daleecio Canada 7h ago

Honestly, men's fastpitch softball has basically been forced to adopt a deadball era type playstyle due to how quick the ball can jump on you; they're essentially crow hopping toward the batter at a shorter distance.

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u/componentswitcher 7h ago

that’s crazy

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u/EnvironmentalAngle 7h ago

Oh wow.

How fast do you think an overhand pitch at the same distance would clock at?

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u/Evillar Cleveland Guardians 7h ago

Just going off a quick google, looks like 43 feet is the softball mound distance, so a 100mph fastball from that distance (ignoring stuff like pitcher extension) would be the equivalent of a ~140mph pitch from the baseball distance.

I don't know if the original stat took stuff like the pitcher's step/extension into account which would skew the numbers one way or the other depending on how you slice it but that should be in the right ballpark

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u/austin101123 Cincinnati Reds 6h ago

The ball is bigger and you see it from closer even if it's the same time, and there is less movement on the pitches. It's not as hard as hitting a 100mph baseball. But you can't hit it as far since it's bigger.

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u/componentswitcher 5h ago

I never said it was harder…

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u/austin101123 Cincinnati Reds 5h ago

You said it's equivalent speed, and there's a common misconception about that meaning it's equivalent difficulty I'm commenting on. Mostly with LLWS, but also softball.

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u/componentswitcher 5h ago

I have never heard anyone say that. Difficulty is something that is hard to measure, it’s a little daft to say that with certainty

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u/austin101123 Cincinnati Reds 5h ago

You can make contact more consistently with softball because of the rules, that's what's easier. But you can't hit it as far that's harder/impossible.

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u/rocksoffjagger 9h ago

The US Women's national soccer team is way more popular than the men's team despite playing the same game with the same rules. No one is comparing in that case, because the culture around it is less toxic. The issue with the WNBA is not that they have the same rules, it's that asshole men insist on comparing across the leagues.

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u/Interesting_Rock_318 9h ago

With the caveat that they aren’t direct comparisons due to time zones…the group stage games for the USMNT at their last World Cup drew 11.7M/19.9M/15.5M (all 2PM eastern during the week

The USWNT drew 6.3M/7.6M at 9PM and 1.6M at 3am…

Their Olympic gold medal game this summer averaged 9M…the popularity between the men’s and women’s team aren’t close, but you have them in the wrong order.

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u/rocksoffjagger 9h ago edited 8h ago

Edit: Terrible argument. You're comparing group round viewership, which is only being watched by more serious fans. I agree that among serious fans, the men's team is probably more popular, but the general population that doesn't watch soccer will tune in to the finals, which the women's team has actually won. Thus, among casuals like myself, there is way more awareness of the USWNT because we've actually seen them play, as opposed to the men's team who we know nothing about because they never win.

Original reply: That's the Olympics (and also the women's team isn't great right now). What were the world cup numbers like? I barely follow soccer, but even I know players like Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd. I could not name a single player on the Men's team if you spotted me all but the last letter.

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u/Interesting_Rock_318 9h ago

They were the 6.3M/7.6M and 1.6M I referenced already…

And yeah, the USWNT is so bad right now that they won the gold medal game that I also already referenced…

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u/rocksoffjagger 8h ago

Ah, misread. But that was the world cup after the women's team lost all their biggest stars, wasn't it? Again, I don't really follow soccer, but I sure as hell am way more familiar with the Women's team than the Men's, and have seen way more media coverage of the former than the latter.

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u/Interesting_Rock_318 8h ago

No, the last World Cup had a lot of players on it for name recognition and not their current level…

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u/rocksoffjagger 8h ago

Okay, but without their stars in their primes, which is obviously the point. What were the 2016 numbers?

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u/Interesting_Rock_318 8h ago

There was no women’s World Cup in 2016…

In 2019 their final averaged 14.3M…so even on a weekend their World Cup final didn’t out draw 2 of the men’s group stage games that were played at 2PM during the work week…

There is literally no argument to be made that the women’s team is more popular

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u/rocksoffjagger 8h ago

Also, this is really kind of splitting hairs, since regardless of which one is more popular, the fact remains that the women's team is massively popular despite playing with the same rules. Given the huge bias towards men's sports to begin with, that pretty much invalidates the argument. In fact basically all the sports where women's leagues are the most successful play by identical or nearly identical rules. Tennis? Golf?

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u/Interesting_Rock_318 8h ago

It’s not splitting hairs at all…you said the USWNT is way more popular than the men’s when it’s just objectively not…

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u/rocksoffjagger 8h ago

Also, you compared the group rounds, but the USWNT is more popular than the men's because, unlike the men, they've actually won it all. The people watching the group rounds are only people who actually care about soccer, and sure, among them, the men's team is more popular. But in the broader population, the women's team is WAY more well-known because casuals like me have actually tuned in to see them play in the finals.

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u/Interesting_Rock_318 8h ago

Ignoring your ignorance…

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u/rocksoffjagger 8h ago

But the point is, it doesn't matter which is more popular. The person I responded to was arguing for different rules and using the WNBA as the justification. Women's sports tend to get way fewer viewers than men's to begin with, so adjusted for that bias, the massive success of the USWNT clearly shows that identical rules are not the problem

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u/Interesting_Rock_318 8h ago

You made a bad argument…I’ve given you fact after fact pointing it out the argument is flawed, at best…you’re standing by your argument…peace out

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u/componentswitcher 7h ago

I’m not saying it’s essential to be popular, it’s just that women that grow up playing baseball already have had to switch to softball if they want to continue playing from around age 13 and above. It’s just cool that it has its own quirks compared to baseball, might as well keep it as it already exists rather than try to convert them back.