Women’s pro baseball comes home to Illinois, paving the way for next generation of ballplayers

Seven years ago, 11-year-old Amira Hondras made a list of goals for her baseball career. The biggest among them was making the women’s national team and playing professionally.

Around then, she competed at Rivets Stadium in Rockford in the Baseball for All national tournament, which hosts an annual international youth girls’ baseball contest for ages eight to 18.

She returned to Rivets last weekend, this time on the roster of the U.S. national women’s baseball team, which closed out the weekend undefeated in the qualifying round of the Women’s Baseball World Cup. It secured them a ticket back to Rockford for the international tournament’s finals next year.

This Saturday, the 18-year-old will bat for the L.A. Queens as they face the New York Heights at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield for the Women’s Professional Baseball League’s opening day.

Hondras’ loved ones already made the 100-mile trip from the south suburbs with a cardboard cut-out of her face to cheer her on last weekend, and plan to continue through the WPBL season.

And it’s all taking place in Illinois — where women’s baseball flourished more than 70 years ago — as a new generation of professional players steps up.

“I don’t think it gets more full circle than that,” Hondras told the Sun-Times. “This could be anywhere in the world, and having that support there in the stands makes the experience so much better. It makes it feel like home.”

The Women’s Baseball World Cup is an international competition held every three years since 2004, filling the gap left by the lack of an Olympic category for women’s baseball.

The WPBL aims to take up the mantle of its ancestor, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which got its start in Chicago in 1943. Tryouts for teams like the Rockford Peaches, famously depicted in the 1992 movie and 2022 television show “A League of Their Own,” were first held at Wrigley Field that year. The AAGBPL shut down in 1954.

Other U.S.-based professional women’s baseball leagues came and went in the years since. The last was the short-lived Ladies Professional Baseball League, which was shut down in its second season in 1998.

Hondras, the lone Chicago player in the league, grew up in a baseball family of Sox fans on the South Side, and eventually, South Holland.

By age 12, she was selected as the first girl in the White Sox Amateur City Elite youth baseball team. She played there until she was picked up by the national team and subsequently the professional league.

But Hondras’ path to professional baseball hasn’t always existed.

Growing up in the 1960s, Kat Williams often took part in neighborhood sandlot pickup games; it was her only avenue to play baseball. Her admiration for the sport carried on as she played through the years, though never on a team.

She helped found the International Women’s Baseball Center in 2012. Now CEO of the Rockford-based organization, as well as a board member for the women’s professional league and the international tournament’s hosting committee, she hopes to make Rockford into the Cooperstown of women’s baseball.

“They didn’t exist then, so I never had the honor of playing on a team,” Williams said. “But I do everything I can to make sure others can. This is why I’m on this planet.”

World Baseball Softball Confederation

Hondras’ fellow U.S. national team player Jill Albayati was a first-round pick for the San Francisco Firebells. She told the Sun-Times she was excited to play in Rockford, home of one of the most iconic women’s teams. At the international competition, she managed five strikeouts while pitching three innings.

Her goal now in the WPBL is “obviously making the playoffs and winning it all,” but no matter who wins, she wants the season be a success. Hondras is hopeful enough interest could lead to a Chicago team.

“Hopefully we can grow the name of women’s baseball and reach even more fans,” Albayati said.

As one of the youngest players in the league, Hondras is focused on learning from seasoned teammates while showing off her hitting and defensive capabilities. She batted .500 and knocked down two plays at second base over the weekend.

But beyond that, she’s passing on her dream and making new ones.

Rockford holds its own annual Women in Baseball week, which brought back the Baseball For All tournament Hondras played in years ago.

“I might have to make another list,” Hondras said, laughing. “Running out and seeing little girls call your name and ask for autographs, it’s like a dream come true. … There’s a huge younger generation coming up playing baseball, so hopefully this gives them something to aspire to.”

World Baseball Softball Confederation