Category: United Professional Softball League

American Professional Slo-Pitch League

Pittsburgh Hardhats

The Pittsburgh Hardhats softball team played for six seasons between 1977 and 1982 during the short-lived Pro era of men’s slo-pitch softball. The Hardhats competed in the first men’s pro league – the American Professional Slo-Pitch League – and, later, in its the APSPL’s successor league, the United Professional Softball League.

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1981 Syracuse Salts program from the United Professional Softball League

Syracuse Salts

The Syracuse Salts were a brief attempt to field a men’s professional softball team in upstate New York in the summer of 1981.  The Salts were comically overmatched in the United Professional Softball League. The club played a 60-game schedule, which consisted of 15 home doubleheaders at Hopkins Road Field In Liverpool, New York and 15 road doubleheaders.  The team finished their only season with 4 wins and 52 losses.

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1977 Cincinnati Suds Ticket Brochure from the American Professional Slo-Pitch League

Cincinnati Suds

The Cincinnati Suds softball team played in various locales in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky from 1977 until 1982. Slo-Pitch softball had 15 minutes of fame as a pro sport in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when a group of enthusiasts and speculators attempted to establish a marketplace for men’s softball as a nationwide professional sport. Of the several dozen teams formed during Slo-Pitch softball’s brief pro moment, the Cincinnati Suds were one of only two clubs (along with the Kentucky Bourbons) who played for all six seasons from 1977 to 1982.

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1980 New England Pilgrims Pocket Schedule from the American Professional Slo-Pitch League

New England Pilgrims

Obscure men’s professional Slo-Pitch franchise that operated for four seasons out of New Haven, Connecticut. In 1979, the New England Pilgrims earned a few wire service mentions around the country for signing 39-year old former Detroit Tigers All-Star infielder Dick McAuliffe. Read more…

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Kentucky Bourbons Softball

Kentucky Bourbons

From 1977 to 1982, men’s slo-pitch softball was a professional sport in the United States. The first pro league was the American Professional Slo-Pitch League (APSPL) which launched with 12 clubs in the summer of 1977. The Louisville-based Kentucky Bourbons were one of the just three franchises to persist through all six seasons of the professional era.

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