Major League Baseball has some of the most recognizable franchises in the world. But a new league is coming for America’s pastime, letting women into the professional field for the first time in 72 years. The Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) kicked off its inaugural season on Aug. 1 after the unveiling of the first the league’s first four teams, all named to honor pioneering women: San Francisco Firebells, New York Heights, Los Angeles Queens and Boston Hunters. [Image: courtesy WPBL] “We realized we wanted every team identity to represent something bigger than baseball,” WPBL’s chief marketing officer, Kelly Gianopoulos, tells Fast Company. “While each team has its own distinct personality, they’re all connected by the same spirit of courage, resilience, and challenging expectations.” The newly established league follows in the footsteps of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was popularized in the 1990s hit film A League of Their Own. That league brought women to the professional stage for over a decade, but folded in 1954, leaving a vacuum in professional women’s baseball. While bringing women back onto the field was a massive undertaking, it also opened the doors for a rare occasion: designing a major sports league from scratch. [Image: courtesy WPBL] Creative control When Justine Siegal, a well-known baseball coach and sports educator, and Keith Stein, a lawyer and sports investor, set out to create the WPBL, they knew they wanted it to operate under a single ownership model to start. This allows the organizers creative control over all aspects of the league, from which markets to prioritize to creating initial naming conventions, uniform design, and overall brand identity. “Ultimately we will have team owners, but by the time we get there, I think we’ll be very proud of the foundation we’ve put in place,” says Stein, the CEO. [Image: courtesy WPBL] Among the most important decisions was naming the inaugural teams after pioneer

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