Category: Senior Professional Baseball Association

West Palm Beach Tropics Senior Professional Baseball Association

West Palm Beach Tropics

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.

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Gold Coast Suns Senior Professional Baseball Association

Gold Coast Suns

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. The Suns played most of their games at Pompano Beach with a handful in Miami as well. Team owner Russ Berrie, a wealthy toy manufacturer, at one point traded 500 Teddy Ruxpin dolls to the Winter Haven Super Sox for the rights to sign 48-year old pitcher Luis Tiant. The Suns folded after one season of play in 1990.

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Bradenton Explorers Senior Professional Baseball Association

Bradenton Explorers

Senior Professional Baseball Association (1989-1990) Born: 1989 – SPBA founding franchise Moved: June 1990 (Daytona Beach Explorers) First Game: November 1, 1989 (L 3-1 @ Orlando

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1989 Fort Myers Sun Sox program from the Senior Professional Baseball Association

Fort Myers Sun Sox

Senior Professional Baseball Association (1989-1990) Born: May 31, 1989 – SPBA founding franchise Folded: December 26, 1990 First Game: November 1, 1989 (W 13-0 vs. Gold

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Bill Lee in action on the cover of the 1989-90 Winter Haven Super Sox Yearbook

Winter Haven Super Sox

The Winter Haven Super Sox were one of eight original franchises in the Senior Professional Baseball Association which began play in 1989. The SPBA offered salaries in the $5,000 – $15,000 per month range, so luring recently retired ex-Major Leaguers was not a problem. True to their name, the Super Sox loaded their roster with former Boston Red Sox stars including Bill Campbell, Bernie Carbo, Cecil Cooper, Butch Hobson, Rick Wise and player-manager Bill “Spaceman” Lee.

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