Creating a Successful League of Their Own: An Empirical Exploration of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was created during World War II, when many male major and minor league baseball players became soldiers. While the league achieved some success from various perspectives, the question remains: Was the AAGPBL able to create “a league of their own” with competitive balance comparable to the men’s leagues of Major League Baseball (MLB)? We analyzed performance team data to determine whether the league had competitive balance comparable to MLB-American League (MLB-AL) and MLB-National League (MLB-NL), on three measures of within-season, three measures of across-seasons, and one measure of inter-seasonal competitive balance, for the 12 seasons of the AAGPBL. The results showed that AAGPBL created a league with competitive balance comparable to both MLB-AL and MLB-NL on all seven measures.