Austin is getting new professional sports team: The Texas Smoke. The softball team will play in the Women’s Professional Fastpitch league.
Brandon Phillips, who played baseball with the Cincinnati Reds, and his wife, pro wrestler Jade Cargill, are launching the team. Phillips said they chose Austin because it’s a growing city and the state’s capital.
He said he wanted to build a team like this because there aren’t many opportunities for women in softball after college.
“My sister was a great softball player in high school,” Phillips said. “The main reason why she stopped playing was because, after college, the women didn’t really have nowhere to go.”
Fastpitch softball is a form of the game that is usually played in college, most identifiable by the windmill motion that pitchers make and the rapid speed at which the ball travels.
