Senior Professional Baseball Association (1989-1990)
Tombstone
Born: May 31, 1989 – SPBA founding franchise
Folded: October 26, 19901Otterson, Chuck. “Tropics fold, will try to regroup for next year”. The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, FL). October 27, 1990
First Game: November 1, 1989 (W 8-1 vs. St. Lucie Legends)
Last Game: February 4, 1990 (L 12-4 vs. St. Petersburg Pelicans @ Fort Myers, FL)
Senior League Champions: 1990
Stadium
West Palm Beach Municipal Stadium
Opened: 1963
Demolished: 2002
Ownership
Owners: Don Sider & John Henry
Attendance
West Palm Beach led the Senior Professional Baseball attendance in attendance for the 1989-90 season. The Tropics averaged 1,600 fans per game for 35 home dates.
Tap (mobile) or mouse over chart for figures. Tilting your mobile device may offer better viewing.
Source: Kenn.com Attendance Project
Our Favorite Stuff
West Palm Beach Tropics
Logo T-Shirts
West Palm Beach’s Municipal Stadium was the long-time spring training home of the Montreal Expos and their Florida State League farm team, the WPB Expos.
But during the winter of 1989-90, it was also the home of the Tropics. The Tropics were part of the Senior Professional Baseball Association, a league for players 35 and over that attracted big name ex-Major Leaguers during its brief existence. The Tropics won the league’s only championship in 1990 with a core of former Expos, including manager Dick Williams, Ray Burris, Rodney Scott and Jerry White.
This Tropics design is available in Coral, Turquoise and White from Royal Retros today!
When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!
Background
The West Palm Beach Tropics were the strongest team, on and off the field, during the lone complete season of the Senior Professional Baseball Association. The SPBA was an attempt to form a Florida-based winter-time pro league for players age 35 & above. The eight-team circuit recruited a large number of well-known former Major Leaguers, along with a handful of career minor league ballplayers who still had something left in the tank.
The Tropics were managed by future Hall-of-Famer Dick Williams, who managed the Oakland A’s to back-to-back World Series champions in 1972 and 1973. The Tropics re-united Williams with several of his former stars from his Major League stops. 43-year old Rollie Fingers was the closer on William’s early 70’s championship teams in Oakland. Ray Burris, Rodney Scott and Jerry White were all members of Williams’ Montreal Expos squad that won the National League East in 1981.
The Senior Professional Baseball Association’s debut season ran from November 1989 until the first week of February 1990. The Tropics were far and away the class of the league with a 52-20 record in the regular season. They also had the best attendance in the league with 1,600 fans per game, though the league badly under-performed box office expectations across the board.
The Tropics lost the SPBA championship game to the St. Petersburg Pelicans in an upset loss on February 4, 1990. The game had to be played at a neutral site in Fort Myers after the Tropics were unable to use their home field at West Palm Beach Municipal Stadium.
Demise & Aftermath
The Senior Professional Baseball Association attempted to stage a second season in the winter of 1990-91. The new season featured expansion to Arizona and California and an extensive re-shuffling of the league’s remaining Florida-based teams. Tropics founder Don Sider, a Boca Raton attorney, unloaded the team in September 1990. The new owner, New York theatrical producer Mitchell Maxwell, owner the league’s Winter Haven Super Sox team during the first season. But Maxwell walked away from the team shortly thereafter, leaving the club adrift and putting the SPBA’s second season in peril.
The league ultimately folded the Tropics on the eve of the 1990-91 season. The remaining SPBA owners collectively funded a homeless, travel-only squad known as the Florida Tropics to help fill out the league schedule. The SPBA last only a month into its second season before folding at the Christmas holiday in 1990.
Original Tropics co-owner John Henry went on to buy Major League Baseball’s Florida Marlins in 1999 and Boston Red Sox in 2002. The Red Sox have won four World Series to date under Henry’s stewardship. Henry added Liverpool Football Club to his sports empire in 2010.
West Palm Beach Tropics Shop
Downloads
Odell Jones West Palm Beach Tropics Contract
Senior Professional Baseball Association Standard Player Contract
Links
###
