NEW YORK (AP) — Kinzie Hansen-McKinzie is looking forward to connecting with a fanbase as the Athletes Unlimited Softball League switches to a traditional model of teams in fixed cities in year two rather than the touring model of its initial season.

“That’s going to be so fun because then you can establish fans that can keep coming back,” the 24-year-old Oklahoma City catcher said.

Six teams will compete this season: the Carolina Blaze, Chicago Bandits, Utah Talons and Texas Volts return, joined by two expansion teams, the Oklahoma City Spark and Portland Cascade. Two ballparks host minor league baseball teams and four are softball specific.

“We wanted all of our markets to be softball strong, as well as hospitable to women’s sports,” said AUSL Commissioner Kim Ng, the former Miami Marlins general manager. “I would expect somewhere in the next three-to-five years we’ll be in, say, a couple of bigger metro areas.”

Major League Baseball invested last year in Athletes Unlimited, which administers the AUSL along with competitions in basketball and volleyball.

“We don’t think about the trajectory of AUSL on a 30-year horizon. We think of it as a much shorter, kind of quicker horizon,” Athletes Unlimited CEO Jon Patricof said. "We really see the Olympics and then the years right after that as being kind of the time that we’re shooting for to kind of really reach major league status and be where we want to be business for us."

Each team has a 16-player roster and there is a league-wide reserve pool filled with potential replacements in the event of injuries.

Training starts May 27 at Vero Beach, Florida, and each team is scheduled for 25 regular-season games from June 9 to July 20. The top three advance to the playoffs: the second and third seeds meet in a knockout game at College Station, Texas, on July 23, with the winner advancing to the best-of-three championship against the top seed two days later at the Davis Diamond.

This season’s schedule includes 51 games on ESPN platforms, 20 on the CBS Sports Network and 11 on the MLB Network.

Ballparks were at 90% capacity last year, including 24 sellouts as four touring teams competed. Eleven telecasts on ESPN2 averaged 117,000 viewers.

Ballpark capacities range from 7,250 in Round Rock to 1,300 in Oklahoma City. Patricof said more than half ticket sales are from individual game buyers.

“I think that’s got to evolve over time,” he said.

Seventeen of 18 members of the U.S. national team player pool are in the league. New commercial partners include Adidas and Sephora.

“It’s going to be dramatic growth," Patricof said. We’re talking about significant increases in the number of people who are going to be attending, significant increases in merchandise sales.”

Attention on the sport is likely to increase in 2028, when the eight-nation Olympic softball tournament will be played in Oklahoma City from July 23-29. The league will interrupt its season for the Olympics, part of the Los Angeles Games.

“We really see kind of the Olympics and then kind of the years right after that as being kind of the time that we’re shooting for to kind of really reach major league status,” Patricof said.

Odicci Alexander-Bennett, a 28-year-old right-handed pitcher on the Chicago Bandits, is looking forward to having her 5-year-old Alanna and 3-month-old Halo watch her play. She felt pitching while pregnant last summer helped her velocity.

“I'd say 70 (mph) on a good day,” she estimated.

Softball doesn't yet pay enough for most players to rely on it as a sole income source.

“It’s getting there,” Hansen-McKinzie said. “I’m very, very grateful, but playing softball I feel like is just part of the job because I teach the younger athletes, I do private lessons, and then just marketing for myself, a lot of brand engagement, which is really fun.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — Brendan Beck received a call from his minor league manager, telling him to meet in the hotel lobby. A short while later, the 27-year-old pitcher hopped into a car for a ride to the big leagues.

“You always want it to happen and you think it’s going to happen, but it’s when it actually does, it’s kind of just still a dream,” Beck said Thursday after tossing three innings for the New York Yankees in his major league debut, a 9-2 win over Texas.

“Now it’s something that I’ve done and I can picture that moment and being out on the field and out there with the guys and take that back and now really get to work.”

Beck learned Wednesday before Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's 11 a.m. game at Worcester that a call-up was possible but not definite, getting word from manager Shelley Duncan, pitching coach Spencer Medick and bullpen coach Pete Larson. Beck had to cope with the uncertainty.

“Just a lot of sitting around and trying to keep my mind distracted,” he said.

New York waited until evening to make the decision, and Duncan summoned Beck to the lobby at about 8 p.m.

“`Hey, pack your bag,'” Beck remembered the manager telling him.

Beck left at around 9:30 p.m. and reached The Opus Westchester hotel in White Plains, New York, about midnight.

“So many moving pieces, yeah, and just phone calls and texts,” he said.

Beck pitched at Stanford just after brother Tristan, a 29-year-old righty who made his major league debut with San Francisco in 2023. Their mom, Lucy, is a Stanford graduate as is their sister, Meghan.

Selected by the Yankees on the second round of the 2021 amateur draft, the California native signed for a $1.05 million bonus, then had Tommy John surgery and didn't make his professional debut until June 2023.

He missed 2024 because of another elbow injury that required surgery, started 2025 at Double-A Somerset and was promoted to Triple-A last June. Beck finished 13-5 with a 3.36 ERA in 24 starts and two relief appearances, striking out 123 and walking 36 in 131 1/3 innings.

He pitched for Britain in this year's World Baseball Classic along with his brother. Brendan Beck went 2-2 with a 5.11 ERA in seven starts at Scranton this season before the call-up.

“Been through a lot of stuff, but I think everyone kind of has obstacles that they have to overcome,” Beck said. “Luckily, I was able to overcome mine.”

When he walked into the Yankee Stadium clubhouse, he was greeted by infielder Max Schuemann, a Scranton teammate this season.

“It’s awesome to see a familiar face in Beck,” Schuemann said. “I understand what it’s like to be called up. I know there’s a lot going on.”

Beck's mother and father, Ryan, took a red-eye to get to New York and watched his debut along with his sister and his wife, who drove from Scranton and beat him to the Big Apple. The Giants gave a day off to his brother, who is assigned to Triple-A Sacramento, and Tristan also was at Yankee Stadium.

Beck entered to start the second inning following opener Paul Blackburn, who made an emergency start because Ryan Weathers got sick this week and lost nine pounds. Beck allowed two runs, two hits and three walks in three-plus innings, throwing 28 of 52 pitches for strikes.

“I definitely wish I could have commanded the zone a little better,” he said.

Beck averaged 92.1 mph with 29 four-seam fastballs and threw 18 sliders, three curveballs, one splitter and a sinker.

“Walked a few guys and some of the hard contact found gloves, which was good,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “But he looked in control out there and gave us just what we needed.”

Beck was optioned back to Scranton after the game and didn't travel with the team to Milwaukee. He planned to have dinner with family and friends.

“If everyone’s willing to have me,” he said.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB