It's interesting to think about whether it's ever possible for pro fastpitch to take off and, if so, what it would take. I think there are a lot of obstacles, but I like to think many of them could be overcome.
One obstacle might be labeled as "sexism" and/or the belief many people have that women don't have as good as skills as men and that it's not as entertaining to watch, but I would argue there that this is different than say WNBA basketball. There, men and women are playing almost the identical game, but there are a lot more differences between baseball and fastpitch. Another obstacle can be if the lot of the potential fan base didn't play when they were growing up ... those of us older males played all of the 3 major U.S. sports growing up and dreamed of being pro players someday, while this didn't happen with our female classmates. There are admittedly a lot more male sports fans than females, but there is also no doubt that the fastpitch game has grown a lot in terms of participation over the last 10-20 years. But then you think about ****** where there has been a lot of youth participation for many years, and some of the interest in following the pro sport (primarily in Europe) is just starting to pick up a little.
Another thing that baseball has going for it is all of the tradition and records ... following some of the league's best players to see if they can bat .300, or hit 50 HR's, or win 20 games ... that's almost impossible to match in a newer pro sport, especially if there's not the media coverage.
Again, just interesting to think about ...