Is women’s pro softball here to stay?

What is it about softball? “What is it not about softball?” replies Megan Faramio, a star pitcher for the Talons in the all-new Athletes Unlimited Softball League, or AUSL. “I can literally talk about softball for days.” The AUSL is about to wrap up its first season with a three-game playoff series in Alabama between Faraimo’s Talons and the Bandits, a team name that Chicago softball fans know well. The Chicago Bandits were based mainly in Rosemont and played in the National Pro Fastpitch league from 2005 to 2019 until the league disbanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. The AUSL said it was “re-introducing” the Bandits brand “to make new history.” AUSL league commissioner Kim Ng acknowledged that pro women’s softball leagues in the U.S. have a “spotty” history, but she says this league will be different. In this inaugural “barnstorming season,” AUSL teams like the Talons and Bandits are not yet attached to specific cities, so The Stadium in Rosemont has hosted every team in the small league for many of the regular season’s games. Next year, the AUSL plans to attach six teams to six to-be-determined cities, and Ng says Rosemont is on the short-list. “Absolutely, you have to consider somewhere that has a Jennie Finch Way,” Ng said, a reference to the team’s legendary former player and the street named after her where Rosemont’s pro softball field is located. In our last episode, we looked back at Chicago’s first professional women’s softball league from the 1940s and ‘50s — one that featured business-sponsored teams like Parichy’s Bloomer Girls or Brach’s Kandy Kids. That softball league rivaled the pro women’s baseball league featured in the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own.” Today, we’re exploring this new chapter in professional women’s softball history. What’s going to give the AUSL staying power? And what’s all the hype about? We asked Talons star Megan Faraimo, Commissioner Ng, and — at a sellout crowd on a hot day in Rosemont — the fans.