The newly launched Women's Pro Baseball League got under way at the weekend, but the pre-match entertainment overshadowed the sporting occasion after a national anthem performance was heavily criticised on social media. The league's opening fixture, between the Los Angeles Queens and the New York Heights, was played on Saturday, marking a significant step for professional women's baseball in the United States.

Motown singer Martha Reeves, best known as the lead vocalist of Martha and the Vandellas, was chosen to perform the anthem ahead of the first pitch. Reeves, whose group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and whose hit "Dancing in the Street" is preserved in the US Library of Congress's National Recording Registry, drew a wave of negative reaction online for her rendition, with the performance becoming a talking point that drew attention away from the league's debut.