Athletes Unlimited Softball League is coming to Sulphur, Louisiana, in June 2025, but it is far from the first time women will be playing a diamond sport professionally.
AUSL started from the Athletes Unlimited softball program, AUX. It began with a team captain format, where captains were chosen by points and each week there would be new captains that would draft their own team that they would also play on.
AUX has been competing with the Women’s Professional Fastpitch Organization since 2020, but AUX took off in recent years becoming the biggest United States based professional softball organization. Now named AUSL, teams will be coached by all-time softball greats, and they are traveling to find softball hot spots in the United States during the 2025 season.
With all of the attention on the AUSL, it is important to remember the history of where professional softball originated from. During World War II, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was created, and it began the world of women athletes in diamond sports.
In 1942, several minor league baseball teams were disbanded due to the war, so to counter this from spreading to the Major Leagues, Phillip Wrigley decided a women’s softball league should be prepared to take over Major League Baseball fields. From here, AAGPBL was born.
As shown in the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own,” girls were scouted from all across the United States to participate in the new women’s baseball league, which was reduced to 75 girls to try out for the league. Only 60 made the final rosters.
AAGPBL played from 1943-1954, and it allowed over 600 women the chance to play professional baseball. In 2004, the idea of women’s professional baseball was followed up with the USA Women’s National Team.
The USA Women’s National Team is a baseball team that is played by all women in the World Baseball and Softball Confederation. They play on complete baseball fields, using baseballs. There is nothing separating them from traditional men’s baseball, other than the fact that it is a women’s only league.
USA Women’s Baseball plays in international tournaments, exactly like the men’s USA baseball team. They play in the Women’s Baseball World Cup and the Pan-American Series, as well as other tournaments similar to that.
With the rise of women’s softball in the male-dominated world of sports, there is no surprise that professional softball has been in the works for years. Softball has been in and out of the Olympics in the last several games, but college softball has shown that there is no contest to the popularity of the growing sport.
A traditional professional league is a long time coming, and softball fans everywhere are excited to finally get to watch their favorite players do their thing at a professional level.
AUSL is taking rosters from the best college graduates in recent years, and bringing them together to compete in the hardest competition they have ever faced. This league is going to grow the game of softball unlike any other.
From the need for professional baseball, to the beginnings of professional softball, diamond sports have made their mark on the world of professional female athletes. It is to be seen in the 2025 AUSL season how the growth of softball will change the professional sports world any further.
