AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Have you seen the Everyone Watches Women's Sports T-shirts? Well, if you were watching women's baseball yesterday, you saw the WPBL's first grand slam.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER: So slight split grip.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER: This one's launched into right. That has a lot of distance. And it will be gone.
(CHEERING)
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The batter is first baseman Sarah Edwards of the Los Angeles Queens. Her bases-loaded home run allowed the Queens to jump to a 6-0 lead against the Boston Hunters.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER: Sarah Edwards - the patience. Seeing a few pitches going deep in the count, 3-1, she decided to take the green light and absolutely launched that pitch.
CHANG: Edwards' historic grand slam was no doubt a dream fulfilled for the 600 women who participated in tryouts last summer. But out of the 60 women competing across the league, she will be the one in the history books.
KELLY: Congratulations, Sarah. Now, it is early days for this league composed of just four teams. And don't get me started on the salaries, which top out at just $500 per game. But the talent on display this first year of the league might be cause for hope of a more sustainable league in years to come.
JUSTINE SIEGAL: You know, I've known these - some of these players since they were 11, 12, 13 years old, and now I get to sign them as professional baseball players. That's very meaningful.
CHANG: That is WPBL Commissioner Justine Siegal beaming with pride about stars like Mo'ne Davis, teammate to Sarah Edwards. Davis etched herself in history 12 years ago during the Little League World Series as the first girl in history to win a game and pitch a shutout.
KELLY: Davis told YouTuber Symone with the Sports that she's giving it her all, given the current moment for women's sports.
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MO'NE DAVIS: I think with the momentum that the W has, that the NWSL has, the hockey league, the volleyball league, with all that happening, I think it kind of does give us a little push too.
CHANG: The league has been sure to honor the first women who went pro, including 99-year-old Maybelle Blair, who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, founded in 1943.
KELLY: On opening day, Blair threw out a ceremonial first pitch, and she was greeted by an oversized, white-haired mascot of herself.
CHANG: (Laughter) And Siegal notes the importance and the complexity of this moment for the game.
SIEGAL: We stand on the shoulders of the All-Americans who originally played and also the Black and brown women who weren't allowed to play in that league. So there's a lot of baseball history which we are grateful for and we're building. So we honor that history, but now we're building the future as well.
KELLY: Are you ready to watch?
CHANG: Oh, yeah.
KELLY: The Los Angeles Queens have back-to-back games this weekend, Friday and Saturday, against the San Francisco Firebells.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE NEW FOOLS' "THINGS ON MY MIND") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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