OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Athletes Unlimited Softball League made its debut after a year of buildup and a recent collaboration with Major League Baseball.
The Bandits beat the Talons 3-1 in the first game Saturday in Rosemont, Illinois. The Volts were set to play the Blaze in Wichita, Kansas later in the day.
“I kind of feel like we blinked and it was here,” Cat Osterman, general manager of the Volts, said. “But then there were moments where it felt like we weren’t ever going to get here either because it took a whole year of process. We’re all excited.”
Athletes Unlimited has featured softball since 2020, when it unveiled a unique format that crowned an individual champion. The organization that focuses exclusively on women's sports now has launched a traditional four-team softball league in a traveling format. The Blaze, Volts, Bandits and Talons will play 24 games each, touring to 12 cities. The top two teams will compete in the best-of-three AUSL Championship from July 26-28 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
MLB said last month that it is making a strategic investment in the league. It will include an undisclosed amount for operational costs and a commitment to help it gain visibility. It will market the AUSL and its athletes during its All-Star Game, throughout the postseason and during broadcasts on the MLB Network and streams on MLB.TV.
USA Softball executive director Craig Cress likes the fact that a league with MLB’s backing exists for players to join after their college careers. He sees it as an opportunity to keep the top American players facing elite competition so Team USA will be ready for Olympic softball that will be played in Oklahoma City in 2028.
Japan has won the past two Olympic gold medals in the sport. Cress said he hopes the AUSL emerges as something comparable to Japan’s well-established softball leagues.
“We have a great respect and a great rivalry,” Cress said of the history with Japan. “But this Olympics on our home soil is our gold medal. We need to go get it. So from that standpoint, I know we've got a long way to go, but that’s the end goal.”
Cress said it was smart for Athletes Unlimited to add former MLB executive Kim Ng as commissioner and to seek out the league as a partner. He hopes the AUSL can catch fire the way the WNBA has the past two years with Caitlin Clark.
“The WNBA is now starting to really do some things with the star power they have coming in,” he said. “But what got them to the point to be able to keep their athletes from going overseas to play? It was the involvement of the NBA.”
There are indicators that this league could last longer than those that have come and gone over the years, starting with the well-structured support system, stability and the experience Athletes Unlimited had with the sport before launching this league.
“I think that one thing you hear about Athletes Unlimited from anybody that’s been around it is we’ve done what we said we were going to do," Athletes Unlimited co-founder Jon Patricof said. “We’ve been around now for five years.”
Bri Ellis, who was named the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year for Arkansas this season, played for the Talons on Saturday after being the No. 2 overall pick in the AUSL draft last month. She said she’s thrilled about the timing of the league’s rollout.
“It was kind of this relief that I don’t have to be done now,” she said. “I can keep going and keep playing and there’s still a story to be written for me in my career, and so I’m just really grateful for everyone that’s come before me and has worked their tails off to get the sport to where it is now."
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
CORRECTS FIRST NAME TO SHARLIZE, NOT CHARLIE - Athletes Unlimited Softball League players Sharlize Palacios, left, of the Talons, and Sis Bates of the Bolts, are interviewed at Major League Baseball's headquarters in New York, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Major League Baseball Youth Softball Ambassador Jennie Finch is interviewed at MLB's headquarters in New York, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Athletes Unlimited Softball League Commissioner Kim Ng, a former Major League Baseball executive, is interviewed at Major League Baseball's headquarters in New York, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
