Women's baseball

Women's baseball is currently played in several countries. The strongest and most organized women's baseball leagues are in the United States, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Cuba and Canada. Those countries have national governing bodies that support girls' and women's baseball programs. Other countries/regions that currently have organized women's baseball are Korea, Hong Kong, Venezuela, Argentina and the Dominican Republic.

International competition

International competition in women's baseball began with the 2001 Women's World Series played in Toronto's Skydome. Women's World Series events were held in 2002 (St. Petersburg, Florida), in 2003 (Gold Coast, Australia), and in 2004 (Uozu-city, Japan). The Women's World Series events paved the way for official International Baseball Federation sanctioned Women's World Cup competitions.

In 2004 five countries competed in the 2004 Women's World Cup in Edmonton. They were the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. In 2006 seven countries competed in the 2006 Women's World Cup in Taiwan. Those countries were Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States. The United States won the Gold Medal in both events. The Women's World Cup name has been changed to the Women's World Championship. The International Baseball Federation has sanctioned Women's World Championships biannually through to 2012.

ee also

There are many organizations around the world that are helping to build baseball opportunities for women. A few within the U.S. are:
*All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, created during World War II
*North American Women's Baseball League [ [http://www.nawbl.com North American Womens Baseball League ] ]
*American Women's Baseball Federation [ [http://www.awbf.org American Women's Baseball Federation ] ]
*Women's Baseball League [http://www.baseballglory.com] ,
*United States Women's Baseball [http://www.uswb.org] , and
*USA Baseball [ [http://www.usabaseball.com Welcome to USA Baseball: Home of 1988 & 2000 Olympic Gold Medalists ] ]

*California Women's Baseball League [ [http://www.cwbl.net California Women's Baseball League Home ] ] ,

Notes

[http://www.playwomensbaseball.com Play Womens Baseball - Southern California]

External links

Lists of and links to teams and leagues can be found on these and other sites:
* [http://cogbl.com/forum.htm Women's baseball forum]
* [http://dmoz.org/Sports/Baseball/Women/ Women's baseball links]
* [http://www.girlsbaseballleague.org/ Girls Baseball League Dot Org - related sites, articles and access to a public blog]