Independent (1972)
American Soccer League (1973)
Tombstone
Born: 1972
Folded: 1973
First Game: May 19, 1972 (L 5-1 vs. Aberdeen of Scotland)
Last Game: September 3, 1973 (L 2-0 @ New York Apollo)
ASL Championships: None
Stadia
1972-1973: Memorial Stadium
1973: Catonsville Community College
Branding
Team Colors: Columbia Blue & White11973 Baltimore Bays Program
Ownership
Owner: Jim Karvellas, et al.
Background
The Baltimore Bays of 1972-73 were an attempted revival of the Charm City’s original pro soccer club of the late 1960’s. The original Bays played from 1967 to 1969 and were owned and operated by the Baltimore Orioles. That club lost over a million dollars in three seasons and the Orioles shuttered the operation in September 1969.
The “new” Bays were the brainchild of broadcaster Jim Karvellas. Karvellas was the play-by-play man of the NBA’s Baltimore Bullets during the 1960’s and early 1970’s. He caught the soccer bug calling the North American Soccer League matches of the original Bays. Karvellas’ Bays flirted with the notion of re-joining the NASL in 1972 but it never happened. The broadcaster cited various vague dissatisfactions with the top tier American pro league, but the real reason may have been a lack of capital. Though NASL franchises could be had for around $25,000 at the time, Karvellas would tell The Baltimore Sun in November 1973 that he started the club with just $4,000 in start-up funds.
International Exhibitions
Instead Karvellas ran the Bays as an independent club in 1972. The team claimed membership in no professional league. Instead, they rented Memorial Stadium for a series of nine exhibition matches between May and September 1972. Karvellas managed to put together an impressive line-up of friendlies, piggy-backing onto North American tours already in the works by a number of European and South American teams. The roster included:
- May 19, 1972 vs. Aberdeen of Scotland (Lose 5-1, Crowd: 5,200)
- June 30, 1972 vs. Universidad of Mexico (Win 4-2, Crowd: 4,006)
- July 3, 1972 vs. Werder Bremen of West Germany (Tie 0-0, Crowd: 5,197)
- July 19, 1972 vs. V.F.B. Stuttgart of West Germany (Lose 5-2, Crowd: 5,667)
- July 25, 1972 vs. Birmingham City of England (Lose 7-2, Crowd: 4,127)
- August 1, 1972 vs. Madureira of Brazil (Lose 2-1, Crowd: ?)
- August 6, 1972 vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel (Win 3-1, Crowd: 8,149)
- August 25, 1972 vs. Moscow Dynamo of the USSR (Tie 3-3, Crowd: 17,865)
- September 2, 1972 vs. Campo Grande of Brazil (Win 3-2, Crowd: 5,230)
The Bays returned in 1973 with another ambitious line-up of ten international exhibitions at Memorial Stadium. The line-up included three friendlies against Pele and his club, Santos of Brazil, on May 30, June 8 and June 19. The Bays claimed total attendance of more than 50,000 fans for the three Santos matches.
Into the American Soccer League
New for 1973 was an awkward membership in a pro league. The Bays were no longer a purely independent exhibition team. They joined the low budget American Soccer League for club play. Memorial Stadium was far too large and expensive for lower division derbies, so ASL matches were played on the campus of Catonsville Community College. In addition to separate stadia, the so-called “ASL Bays” had a different coach (Bill Karpovich) from the “International Bays” (Manchester United vet and Munich air disaster survivor Dennis Violett). But the players performed for both squads.
The ASL Bays won their division with a 7-5-2 record before bowing out to New York Apollo in the first round of the 1973 playoffs. The International Bays played another 10 friendlies at Memorial Stadium. But despite the large crowds for Pele and Santos, enthusiasm waned badly for the exhibition schedule as the summer wore on. The club’s final matches in August 1973 against Heilbronn (West Germany), Cerro (Uruguay) and Torpedo Moscow (USSR) drew puny crowds. The final two exhibition matches were cancelled.
Demise
The Bays lost a reported $150,000 over the course 1972 and 1973, which was far beyond the means of Karvellas and whatever small-time investors he was able to scare up. Karvellas took a new sports broadcasting job in Washington D.C. and made some noises about re-organizing the team there in 1974 as bills piled up unpaid in Maryland. The creditors included the Bays players and coaches who reportedly stopped receiving their paychecks in July 1973, more than a month before the club’s final match.
Meanwhile, the North American Soccer League awarded an expansion franchise to Baltimore in the fall of 1973, effectively replacing the Bays at Memorial Stadium. The NASL’s Baltimore Comets would play at the Stadium for two seasons in 1974 and 1975. Jim Karvellas himself re-joined the NASL in 1976, becoming a broadcaster for the famed New York Cosmos from 1976 to 1980.
Baltimore Bays Shop
In Memoriam
Bays owner Jim Karvellas passed away on January 1st, 2007 at the age of 71 following a battle with prostate cancer. New York Post obituary.
Downloads
8-15-1973 Bays vs. Cerro of Uruguay Roster
8-15-1973 Baltimore Bays vs. Cerro of Uruguay Roster
Links
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5 Responses
I saw the Bays play Santos twice. Pele scored an unassisted goal on a corner kick. A friend of mine, Kate Grams, got to meet Pele when she won a signed soccer ball at one of the games. Seeing Pele play in person is something I’ll never forget.
My father took me to two of the Bays matches with Pele! I watched Pele score on a corner kick too! He bent the ball in the upper right corner, I will never forget it! That goal I can still see in my minds eye!
We were seated to the left of home plate, at the corner.
Coach Owens:
I believe I was at that match as well with my dad–I was curious 10 years old, what I would have done to be Katie Grams. I still have the program book from that match –a white cover with Pele’s Picture and autograph!!
We parked down by that lake. Walked up that long walk up 33rd.
Was it on May 30, or June 8 It was a cool evening –might have been a slight rain I believe (made colder by sitting under the overhang in the old Gray Lady just under 3rd base side). I REMEMBER THAT “GOAL OLYMPICO” AS WELL!!
Oh I forgot! The goalie for the Bays was Lincoln Phillips. I met Lincoln back in 1989 at his soccer camp at Mount Saint Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He remembered the game and goal very well! He also signed a camp tee shirt for me! Memories!!!!
Coach Owens love to touch base with you. I grew up in Baltimore near Frankford Ave. BelAir Road, Cedonia Mall– went to St Anthony’s then Loyola HS. I played for St Anthony’s CYO, Rosedale, and down in Highlandtown with Pompei.