The Women's Pro Baseball League has begun play in the United States, returning professional women's baseball to the national calendar after a gap measured less in seasons than in furniture styles.

The league's first game followed more than seven decades after the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League ended in 1954. Women did not stop playing baseball in the meantime. The sport simply performed its familiar administrative trick of noticing them enthusiastically, then misplacing the paperwork.

WPBL begins with four teams representing New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Its opening season is being played at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois, which gives the league one home for now and saves everyone the bother of pretending that airline miles are a civic identity.

Each club plays 15 regular-season games before the playoffs. It is a compact schedule, but not a symbolic one. The players a…4406 tokens truncated…n none.

The Orioles produced three hits, enough to confirm that the team had brought bats but not enough to explain why.

By the second inning, Detroit led 5–0 and the game ceased to be a contest. It became a long administrative process with hot dogs.

The Tigers continued scoring out of politeness.

One run in the third. Two in the fourth. Another in the fifth. Every inning arrived carrying a small parcel of misery for Baltimore.

By the sixth, even Detroit’s celebrations had become apologetic.

Eduardo Valencia hit two home runs. Gleyber Torres drove in five. Kevin McGonigle had four hits.

Baltimore’s most consistent performer was zero, which appeared in all nine innings.

The Orioles did manage a sliding catch at one point. Both dugouts agreed it was lovely.

Detroit finished with 19 hits and 14 runs. Baltimore finished with three hits and some information to process privately.

It was the Orioles’ worst shutout defeat since 2004, meaning history was not made.

It was merely taken down from the attic, dusted and allowed to walk around the house.

The final out came after two hours and 27 minutes, at which point the teams shook hands.

This felt generous of Detroit.

The Orioles play again tomorrow because baseball believes suffering should be given a regular start time.