American Professional Slo-Pitch League (1977)
Tombstone
Born: October 1976 – APSPL founding franchise
Folded: Postseason 1977
First Game: May 29, 1977 (L 18-17 & W 15-10 vs. Milwaukee Copper Hearth)
Last Game: September 10, 1977 (L 26-15 & L 28-11 vs. Detroit Caesars)
APSPL Championships: None
Stadium
Rips Memorial Stadium (5,200)1NO BYLINE, “Baltimore”, Pro Softball Magazine, June 1977, 32.
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owner: Jim Ports
Background
The Baltimore Monuments softball team lives in our ever-growing One-Year Wonder file. The Monuments were one of 12 original franchises in the American Professional Slo-Pitch League (1977-1980), which was the first attempt to professionalize the sport of men’s slo-pitch.
The APSPL was one of many start-up leagues to forecast a rosy future based on surging amateur participation numbers. (Where have you gone, Roller Hockey International?) By 1977, the APSPL claimed that softball was the #1 “participant-spectator sport” in the United States with an estimated 35 million players. Serial sports promoter Bill Byrne announced the league in June 1976 and Maryland sporting goods store owner and softball enthusiast Jim Ports acquired the rights to the Baltimore franchise that October.
The Monuments actually played about 30 miles away in Bowie. Their remoteness may have been a factor in the team’s disappointing attendance, which averaged a little under 1,000 paid tickets per doubleheader. (All APSPL games were doubleheaders).
The team was competitive and finished first in the Eastern Division with a 33-20 record. The Monuments dispatched the New York Clippers and the Kentucky Bourbons in the playoffs to earn a shot at the Detroit Caesars in the 1977 APSPL World Series. The Caesars, by the way, were the first pro sports team owned by Little Caesars pizza king Mike Ilitch, who would later buy the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings and Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers. The Caesar’s swept the Monuments 4 games to zero to capture the first championship of the APSPL.
The Monuments disbanded after the 1977 season.
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