American Professional Slo-Pitch League (1977-1978)
Tombstone
Born: 1976 – American Professional Slo-Pitch League founding franchise
Re-Branded: 1979 (Cleveland Stepien’s Competitors)
First Game: May 29, 1977 (? – ? @ Columbus All-Americans)
Last Game: September 4, 1978 (L 30-24 @ Detroit Caesars)
APSPL Championships: None
Stadium
Elder Field at Brookside Park (10,000)1NO BYLINE, “Cleveland”, Pro Softball Magazine, June 1977, 42.
Marketing
Team Colors: Red, White & Blue2NO BYLINE, “Columbus”, Pro Softball Magazine, June 1977, 46.
Ownership
Owners: Jay Friedman & Don Rardin
Background
This men’s Slo-Pitch softball franchise got started in 1977 as the Cleveland Jaybirds, charter members of the American Professional Slo-Pitch League (APSPL). The APSPL was an effort to create a professional “Major League” of men’s softball, drawing on the vast wealth of amateur Slo-Pitch talent in the Rust Belt cities of the upper Midwest and mid-Atlantic states.
Because APSPL players needed to keep their day jobs, the APSPL was a weekends-only league. The inaugural season saw a 56-game schedule, consisting of 28 double-headers for each team between late May and the end of August 1977.
The Jaybirds derived their name from original co-owner Jay Friedman, chief of the Erie Sheet Steel Corp. and a long-time amateur softball benefactor.
In Competition
Both Friedman and co-owner Don Rardin had deep ties within the sport and the Jaybirds were able to swiftly assemble a strong roster drawn from Northeast Ohio’s top amateur tournament teams of the era such as Non Ferrous Metals and Pyramid Cafe. The Jaybirds also held an open tryout at the TRW plant in Euclid in April 1977. Team officials charmingly declared that “virtually no overweight, over-the-hill candidates showed up” for the session.3NO BYLINE. “Cleveland”, Pro Softball Magazine, June 1977, 44
The Jaybirds were a strong entry in the APSPL’s first year, finishing the regular season with a 32-24 record. They lost to the eventual champion Detroit Caesars 2 games to 1 in a best-of-three semi-final playoff series.
Utility man Crazy Jack Gansheimer was the Jaybirds’ top slugger during the APSPL’s 1977 inaugural season. The Springfield, Ohio native hit .502 and paced the team in homers (44) and RBI (114).
In 1978, the Jaybirds returned to the playoffs for a semi-final re-match with a fearsome Detroit Caesars team. This time, the Caesars swept the Jaybirds in a two-game series in Detroit. These playoff contests, played on September 3rd & 4th, 1978, would be the final games played under the Jaybirds name.
Sale To Ted Stepien
The Jaybirds competed in the APSPL for two seasons (1977-1978) before Friedman and his partner Don Rardin sold the team to Ted Stepien. Stepien renamed the club the Cleveland Stepien Competitors ahead of the 1979 APSPL season, matching his Competitor’s Club restaurant in downtown Cleveland.
The Jaybirds/Competitors were Stepien’s first pro sports investment and it wasn’t long before he aimed higher. In 1980, Stephen would acquire control of the NBA’ Cleveland Cavaliers, ushering in a dystopian three-year spate of coach firings, ruined drafts, empty seats and civic humiliation.
The APSPL
Links
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