Keira Izumi never thought she could play baseball professionally, let alone with other women.
When Izumi, a junior studying mechanical engineering, first heard about the Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL), she thought it was fake news. When she learned it wasn’t, she still didn’t expect to get drafted for the inaugural season. After all, the WPBL only had four teams: the New York Heights, Boston Hunters, Los Angeles Queens and San Francisco Firebells.
“I was sitting underneath the (USC) village in the parking lot,” said Izumi. She recalls the shock of finding out she was drafted. She was on her way to a club softball tournament with her parents.
“I just remember being like, ‘Oh, I know her. Oh, happy for her that she got drafted,’ and then I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s me!’ I [was] just in utter disbelief because it was such a surreal moment to be drafted,” Izumi said.
It had been more than 70 years since there was a professional women’s baseball league. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954, cementing their legacy in the movie A League of Their Own. The WPBL represents a new opportunity and continues a long history of women’s involvement in baseball.
“Women have always been part of this game,” Kat Williams, chief executive officer of the International Women’s Baseball Center, told AP.
In early September, Izumi finished her rookie year with the New York Heights. As a shortstop and occasional right-handed pitcher, she had eight hits, including a home run. She drove in three runs in just 12 games. As for pitching, she pitched a total of four innings with one loss, 10 hits and 13 runs.
In two postseason games, she recorded two hits, including a home run, in three at-bats. She also pitched 0.2 innings without giving up any hits or earned runs.
Since her freshman year, Izumi has been strengthening her skills with the USC club softball team. They have been a support system for her through her journey.
“Playing with the USC club softball team has made me a much more well-rounded athlete,” Izumi said. “I think it’s so different to be able to play with women than to play with the guys on a team; the environment’s so much different. It’s a lot more uplifting. A lot of them are my closest friends now.”
When the Heights played their first playoff game, the team held a watch party.
Kristi Skane, a senior astronomy major and president of the club softball team, said Izumi has become an inspiration to her teammates. In addition to balancing the WPBL, her studies and club softball, Izumi also founded USC’s women’s club baseball team, which paused this fall due to her commitment to the WPBL.
“When I heard that women’s pro baseball was becoming a thing, Keira was my first thought,” Skane said. “I was so elated for her knowing she got drafted because I know that’s her dream, and she’s a part of a group of women trailblazers right now.”
As Izumi’s journey has inspired others, it has also sparked conversations about the ongoing struggles in women’s sports.
Even though women’s professional leagues have grown, they still aren’t as accessible or as successful as men’s leagues. The WPBL was only available on ESPN+, which is behind a paywall, limiting revenue and viewership.
“I think that women’s baseball and professional softball leagues differ from MLB since this can’t be their only job,” Skane said. “They often have to tackle multiple jobs at once while also playing the sport that they love.”
Izumi acknowledges these conflicts, but believes this is a step in the right direction.
“I know for the WPBL there was a lot of backlash with our livestreams being behind a paywall,” said Izumi. “Of course it would be nice for women’s sports to be as widely accessible as men’s sports, and women’s sports definitely deserve to be more widely publicized, but our narrower scope right now is not for a lack of trying.”
Even though she’s pursuing her dream, it’s been no easy task. She completed her first season while managing a rigorous workload of assignments and extracurricular activities.
She spent Monday through Wednesday on campus before catching an early flight to Springfield, Illinois – where all games between the four teams were played – on Thursday, playing games through Sunday and then flying back to Los Angeles to begin the cycle again.
Now that the first season of the WPBL has ended, the hope is that this revival gives little girls more opportunities to play professionally.
Growing up, Izumi said she never had any idols or role models to look up to in the baseball world, but now she hopes little girls will have the opportunity to admire women athletes.
“There’s so many young girls who come out to our games,” said Izumi. “So many girls contact us through social media and tell us how much it means for them to be able to see us playing and how much of an inspiration we are to them.”
Edited by Bennett M. Weinschenk and Samantha Vassallo