Tryouts for the Women’s Pro Baseball League are expected to conclude on Aug. 25 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. The final day of the four-day evaluation process is set to feature the top players in a series of games at the MLB ballpark. The games offer one last chance to impress the league’s scouts and executives. They also carry historic significance and symbolic weight for WPBL leaders and prospective WPBL players. All have lofty ambitions.

You need to go back more than 80 years, back to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, for the last organized women’s baseball tryouts. That gap in time is a popular talking point for the WPBL. It speaks to a sport and a group of athletes long overdue for support and investment.

The argument for the WPBL in the simplest terms: Girls and women who play baseball for national teams or boys high school teams or men’s professional teams deserve an opportunity to play hardball, not just softball, at the professional level in a women’s league. The business case in the most obvious terms: Deloitte predicts that women’s elite sports will reach at least $2.35 billion in global revenue this year. That translates into sponsors, advertisers and prospective owners eager to get........

© Sports Business Journal