SEATTLE -- T-Mobile Park is farther away from Florida State University than any big league ballpark, yet geography didn’t get in the way of a meetup between two of the school's most prominent recent baseball and softball alumni on Wednesday afternoon.
Cal Raleigh, the Seminoles’ slugger from 2016-18, welcomed Michaela Edenfield, who just finished her redshirt senior season at FSU, for a special pregame jersey swap before Seattle’s game vs. Kansas City -- and moments after Raleigh was announced as a starter for the American League All-Star team.
Raleigh, who has blossomed into a star for the Mariners, and Edenfield, who last month was selected with the No. 8 overall pick by the Volts of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League draft, spent roughly 15 minutes chatting about life, athletic ambition and more on the field before exchanging jerseys.
Raleigh signed a white Mariners jersey -- with his autograph on his No. 2 and “Big Dumper” on No. 9 -- while Edenfield gifted him hers from the Volts, which wear purple.
“Game respects game,” Edenfield said. “I always watched Florida State growing up being close to the college itself. And so you take a high look of the catchers throughout the years. ... For him to be doing how he is right now, and just really succeeding, both on and off the field, it's just been really cool to see.”
And indeed, both are catchers, too, adding to the camaraderie. They’d previously connected at an FSU alumni event, so Wednesday represented a catchup of sorts.
“We had that connection, which was cool,” Raleigh said. “They have a really good program there, their softball team has been good for a lot of years.”
AUSL launched its inaugural season on June 7, with a first-of-its-kind partnership -- and an investment from -- Major League Baseball. Like many big leaguers, Raleigh had caught on to the league’s emergence and, recognizing how much his profile has grown this season, wanted to leverage that exposure toward AUSL on Wednesday.
“I know they've tried stuff like this before, so hopefully it works out,” Raleigh said. “If we can help grow that game, and grow the game of baseball as well, we can bring more eyes to it.”
AUSL is the premier professional women's softball league in the United States. Featuring four teams -- the Bandits, Blaze, Talons, and Edenfield’s Volts -- the league consists of a 24-game professional softball season across 10 major cities in the U.S., culminating in a best-of-three championship round at the University of Alabama’s Rhoads Stadium. The league will then become cities-based in 2026.
“Me just being here, kind of like just singles [out] the world of AUSL, and what we're going to be looking like as a league,” Edenfield said, “but also the crossover and the shared love of baseball/softball within the athlete to athlete, and I'm hoping that people are going to be able to see that with our interaction today.”
MLB’s investment, which is part of its ongoing commitment to supporting the growth of softball at all levels, will include joint sales and marketing efforts, extensive promotional support and broadcasts on MLB Network and MLB.com to raise the visibility of the AUSL and its athletes.
AUSL’s commissioner is Kim Ng, who previously served as senior vice president of baseball operations for MLB and was the first female general manager of a major American men’s professional sports team while with the Miami Marlins from 2020-23.
“We're hoping, with the crossover and MLB siding along, that this will be truly legit,” Edenfield said, “and something that my kids will hopefully be able to achieve and be a home team at a home base in a certain city, and play in front of a crowd like this one day.”
Edenfield is expected to be back in Seattle for a three-game AUSL series next weekend, where her Volts will take on the Blaze at the University of Washington’s Husky Softball Stadium, which will also be a Montlake homecoming for alumni Sis Bates (an infielder for the Volts) and Baylee Klingler (an infielder for the Blaze).
Like Edenfield, the former Huskies have also taken part in a Mariners game this season, having thrown out the ceremonial pitch on April 25.
“We've been out of Seattle for a little while, but our fans are like, they love us, and it's so cool,” Klinger said that day. “They will come to all of our things still, and now we can come home ... it's like, man, what a full circle moment for us."