Women’s League Folds After 16 Baseball Games

Mike Ribant, who invested $1 million with his partners to start the Ladies Professional Baseball League last summer, decided this past weekend to discontinue play because of declining attendance.

The Long Beach Aces and Buffalo Nighthawks, only 16 games into the league’s 56-game schedule, were declared first-half winners.

Ribant, a stockbroker from San Diego, said there has been some interest from business groups in Japan and Venezuela to continue the season for a few games in September--the season’s second half--but nothing has been finalized.

“What we need is a TV contract,” Ribant said. “Not a national contract, but a regional one that would provide us with local sponsors. Attendance is not enough for the league to survive.”

Ribant said Long Beach and Buffalo will meet in a playoff series at the end of September.

Janelle Frese, who pitched for the Aces, said she was unhappy to hear Ribant’s decision to end the season early, but expects to be playing again next month.

“What the owners have done has been phenomenal,” Frese said, citing everything from the professional venues to the uniforms and equipment to signing quality players and umpires. “I trust them totally.”

The LPB was the first pro baseball league for women since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League ended its 11-year run in 1954.