New York Heights’ Natsuki Yonetani celebrates while Los Angeles Queens’ Amira Hondras fails to tag her during the inaugural Women’s Professional Baseball League game on Aug. 1 in Springfield, Illinois.Lexie Knight/AP
Admittedly, I don’t know much about baseball—but I do know that watching the first home run of the Women’s Professional Baseball League on Saturday night was incredibly cool.
You have to watch the New York Heights’ Denae Benites smash it out of the park during a rain-filled game against the Los Angeles Queens:
I love the spin and jump from the pitcher, Ayami Sato—the starter for Japan’s national women’s team—in following the hit as she watches the ball sail above everyone’s head. At the same time, Benites runs around the bases and then through a tunnel of her jubilant teammates.
Yes, it’s a historic home run, but it’s also a familiar scene to any sports fan—the celebration from Benites’ team, the disappointment from the Los Angeles Queens (that disappointment didn’t last long though—the Queens responded with six unanswered runs in the last two innings to win). Even though I had never been much of a baseball fan, the long-overdue debut of the WPBL has me excited about the sport for the first time (I even learned what an RBI is!). If you missed the first game, I’d urge you to check out the league’s inaugural season, which runs through mid-September.