Gold Coast Suns

Senior Professional Baseball Association (1989-1990)

Background

The Gold Coast Suns were a One-Year Wonder in the Senior Professional Baseball Association, a Florida-based attempt to establish a winter pro circuit for players 35 years of age and older. (Catchers were allowed to be as young as 32).

The Suns originally planned to split their games between Miami and Pompano Beach. But after early season games at Bobby Maduro Miami Stadium were poorly attended, the Suns moved all of their operations to Pompano Beach Municipal Stadium.

Beloved former Baltimore Orioles skipper Earl Weaver managed the Suns. Weaver led the Orioles to four World Series appearances between 1969 and 1979, winning the title in 1970. Along with Dick Williams of the West Palm Beach Tropics, Weaver was one of two former World Series champion managers to sign on with the Senior League.

Ruxpin(s) For Tiant

Suns boss Russ Berrie, who owned publicly traded New Jersey-based toy & gift company Russ Berrie & Co., was far and away the league’s wealthiest owner. In 1987, he was listed on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans with an estimated net worth of $290 million.¹McNair, Jim. “8 Men In”. The Herald (Miami, FL). January 28, 1990 In August 1990, Berrie traded 500 of his company’s Teddy Ruxpin teddy bears to Winter Haven Super Sox owner Mitchell Maxwell in exchange for the rights to sign 47-year old former Red Sox and Indians star pitcher Luis Tiant.

Tiant, age 48 on opening night and seven years removed from his last competitive pitch in 1982, was the Suns’ oldest player.  The youngest was 32-year old Joe Hicks, a former first round draft selection (1978) of the Chicago Cubs at first base. Hicks spend the season learning to play catcher in order to take advantage of the Senior League’s lower age limit for that position. Hicks played for Pompano Beach’s last pro team, the Pompano Beach Cubs, during his rookie season in the minors in 1978.

Other notable players included shortstop Bert Campaneris, who had 2,249 hits in the Majors, and two stars of the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals World Series championship team: outfielder George Hendrick and ace pitcher Joaquin Andujar.

Andujar raced out to a 5-0 start for the Suns in November and December 1989. The Montreal Expos signed Andujar in mid-December, making the 37-year old the first player to successfully leverage time in the Senior League into a Major League contract. (Andujar’s career ended when he was cut in training camp by the Expos several months later).

Demise & Aftermath

The Suns finished their first and only season on January 31, 1990 with a 32-39 record.

The team folded several months later. The Senior League returned for a second season in the fall of 1990, now with teams in Arizona and California as well. But the league only lasted one month into its sophomore campaign before going out of business in December 1990.

Suns owner Russ Berrie spent the next two years trying to launch the Sunshine Baseball League, a Florida-based winter developmental league that would play in several of the same cities as the Senior League had, including Pompano Beach. But Berrie lost interest in the project and pulled the plug in July 1992 without playing a game.

Suns manager Earl Weaver earned induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.

In Memoriam

Suns owner Russ Berrie died of heart failure on Christmas Day 2002. He was 69 years old. New York Times obituary.

Manager Earl Weaver suffered a fatal heart attack while onboard a Baltimore Orioles-themed fantasy cruise in the Carribean Sea on January 19, 2013. Weaver was 82. New York Times obituary.

Outfielder Paul Blair died of a heart attack at age 69 on December 26, 2013 at age 69. New York Times obituary.

Pitcher Joaquin Andujar passed away from complications of diabetes on September 8, 2015 in his native Dominican Republic. Andujar was 62 years old. New York Times obituary.

Downloads

1989-90 Suns vs. St. Petersburg Pelicans Scorecard

Senior Professional Baseball Association Standard Player Contract

Links

Senior Professional Baseball Association Programs

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