- Senior Professional Baseball Association
The Senior Professional Baseball Association was a winter baseball league based in Florida for players age 35 and over (with a minimum age of 32 for catchers). The league began play in
1989 and had eight teams in two divisions and a 72 game schedule. PitchersRollie Fingers ,Ferguson Jenkins (both future Hall of Famers), andVida Blue , outfielderDave Kingman , and managerEarl Weaver were the league's marquee names, and former big league outfielderCurt Flood was the circuit's first Commissioner. At age 54,Ed Rakow was the league's oldest player. Former strikeout kingJ.R. Richard was drafted by the league but cut in preseason.Throughout the inaugural season, most clubs struggled with poor attendance. On the field, the
West Palm Beach Tropics ran away with the league's South Division, finishing 15 games ahead of the second placeFort Myers Sun Sox . In the North, theSt. Petersburg Pelicans finished in first, and theBradenton Explorers were second, narrowly holding off theOrlando Juice . InfielderRon Washington of West Palm Beach was the league's big offensive star, hitting .359 with a league leading 73 RBIs. Washington's teammateMickey Rivers hit .366, and Gold Coast SunBert Campaneris , the oldest everyday player in the league at 47, stole 16 bases. Bradenton'sJim Morrison hit .290 with 55 RBIs and led the league with 17 homers. Tim Ireland of Fort Myers hit a league best .374, and his teammateKim Allen paced the circuit with 33 stolen bases.Willie Aikens hit 12 home runs and had 58 RBIs. West Palm Beach pitcherJuan Eichelberger went 11-5 with a 2.90 ERA, and St. Petersburg'sMilt Wilcox went 12-3.Jon Matlack ,Tim Stoddard , andPete Falcone each won 10 games. Bradenton'sRick Lysander saved 11 games, and Winter Haven's Bill Campbell notched 5 saves to go along with a 2.12 ERA.Joaquín Andújar of Gold Coast had 5 wins and an ERA of 1.31.In the first weekend of February
1990 , the league's top four teams participated in a three game, single elimination tournament with a rather unusual format. OnFebruary 2 nd, the league's second place clubs faced off. The Explorers defeated the Sun Sox for a chance to face the St. Petersburg Pelicans. The next day, the Pelicans beat the Explorers 9-2 to advance to the league championship game against the West Palm Beach Tropics. OnFebruary 4 th,1990 , the Pelicans, powered byLamar Johnson 's home run and 3 RBIs, beat the Tropics 12-4 for the league's first championship.1989/1990 Teams
Northern Division
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St. Petersburg Pelicans (42-30, 1st Place)*
Bradenton Explorers (38-34, 2nd Place)
*Orlando Juice (3rd Place)*
Winter Haven Super Sox (4th Place)Southern Division
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West Palm Beach Tropics (52-20, 1st Place)*
Fort Myers Sun Sox (37-35, 2nd Place)*
Gold Coast Suns *
St. Lucie Legends For its second season, four of the league's eight teams (Gold Coast, Orlando, St. Lucie, and Winter Haven) folded, and the Bradenton Explorers relocated to Daytona Beach and became the
Daytona Beach Explorers . The circuit added clubs in Arizona (theSun City Rays ) and California (theSan Bernardino Pride ). They also dropped the minimum age to 34 and shortened the season to 56 games. Less than halfway through its second season, the league folded in December1990 .At least five of the circuit's players (
Ron Washington ,Joaquín Andújar ,Paul Mirabella , Dan Boone, andOzzie Virgil, Jr. ) signed major league contracts after playing in the Senior League, and at least three (Mirabella, Boone, and Virgil) played in the big leagues after their Senior League appearances.
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