The Women's Professional Baseball League will hold tryouts next month at the Washington Nationals' home ballpark as it moves closer to its launch.
The league is aiming to play its first season with six teams starting in spring 2026. The tryouts, which will be held Aug. 22-25, will determine the 150 players who will be invited to the league's draft in October.
More than 600 players registered for the four-day camp, the WPBL said. The first three days will include drill-focused sessions, athletic performance testing and player evaluations at the Nationals' Youth Baseball Academy before an initial round of cuts. Players will then compete in a live game at Nationals Park on Aug. 25, after which the final cuts will happen.
Team USA women’s baseball star Alex Hugo, who is a special adviser to the league, will lead the tryouts.
“We are really excited to see all of the players at tryouts this summer and see their incredible skills,” Hugo said in a statement. “We’re building a future where girls and women who love baseball can dream as big as they want and now, finally, have a league to call their own.”
The WPBL was co-founded by Justine Siegal, who is the first woman to coach for an MLB team. When it debuts, it will be the first pro league for women since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — the one immortalized in “A League of Their Own” — dissolved in 1954.
As it nears its launch, the WPBL has already struck a media deal with Fremantle, the production company behind shows like “The Price Is Right" and “Family Feud,” as well as brought in global women's sports investor Assia Grazioli-Venier as its chair.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
A rainbow forms while a tarp is on the field as the start of a baseball game between the Washington Nationals and the Colorado Rockies is delayed due to weather at Nationals Park, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jess Rapfogel)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations.
Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.
The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, and the independent counsel has requested the death sentence in the case that is to be decided in a ruling next month.
In Friday's case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts to detain him, fabricating the martial law proclamation and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting.
Yoon has maintained he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.
Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing “a grave punishment” was necessary because Yoon hasn’t shown remorse and has only repeated “hard-to-comprehend excuses.” The judge also restoring legal systems damaged by Yoon’s action was necessary.
Yoon, who can appeal the ruling, hasn’t immediately publicly responded to the ruling. But when the independent counsel demanded a 10-year prison term in the case, Yoon’s defense team accused them of being politically driven and lacking legal grounds to demand such “an excessive” sentence.
Prison sentences in the multiple, smaller trials Yoon faces would matter if he is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial.
Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.
South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoon’s decree didn’t cause casualties and didn’t last long, although Yoon hasn’t shown genuine remorse for his action.
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waits for a bus carrying former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs as police officers stand guard outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
