The Making of the Colorado Silver Bullets
30 years ago, the Colorado Silver Bullets brought professional women's baseball back, stopping in Tacoma on the way. Plus, appreciation for coach-pitchers and moms.
I will be speaking at the PNW SABR meeting at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma on Saturday May 18. If you’re a SABR member, I hope I’ll see you there! I’ll be talking about the 1915 South Tacoma Tigers and their run for the National Amateur Baseball Championship. It’s a delightful story and if you read this newsletter I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
A League of Their Own was released in the summer of 1992. The movie brought to life the forgotten All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) and was a huge success at the box office; it is still the only baseball movie to gross $100 million.
If you’ve got an eye toward publicity and promotion, the time probably seemed right to cash in on the popularity of the movie and use it to draw attention to a women’s baseball team. In December 1993, the Atlanta Braves’ former publicist and vice president of promotions, Bob Hope (not to be confused with the comedian of the same name), did just that, announcing the formation of the Colorado Silver Bullets.
Although A League of Their Own was an impetus for the Silver Bullets, their origin story stretches further back. Women had played baseball for as long as baseball existed in the United States, but it was never as widely accepted and was often seen as a circus act. The segregated AAGPBL was formed after the US joined WWII, and baseball owners and promoters feared the major leagues would be shut down as part of the war effort. Teams full of women playing baseball in skirts was devised as a way to bring in baseball dollars in the war economy.
The Negro Leagues also used women playing baseball as a promotional gimmick. After major league baseball was integrated, white baseball owners and executives raided the Negro Leagues rosters without compensation. The Negro National League shut down in 1948 and the Negro American League wanted to avoid the same fate. Enter Toni Stone, Connie Morgan, and Mamie “Peanut” Johnson who broke the gender barrier and became professional players on men’s teams.
While the Negro American League was happy to take that plunge, even if for purely promotional reasons, the white minor leagues were not. In June of 1952, the Harrisburg Senators of the Class B Interstate League signed Eleanor Engle to a contract. George M. Trautman, president of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (which governed the white minor leagues), quickly stepped in, issuing an edict two days later which called her signing a travesty and threatened “severe penalties” upon any team that dared to sign, or attempt to sign, a woman player.1
When the AAGPBL folded in 1953, organized women’s baseball disappeared entirely. Five years later, the Negro American League played its last game, and opportunities for women to play professionally were completely closed off.
The desire girls and women had to play and participate in the American Pastime didn’t go away, however. In 1974, Little League reluctantly allowed girls to join teams after they were hit with several lawsuits over their discrimination.
In the late ‘70s, Bob Hope was working for the Coco-Cola Company when they were approached by Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck. Veeck wanted the company to sponsor a series of national tryouts to find a woman who could play baseball in the major leagues. Hope was intrigued by the idea, but thought it would be impossible to find a woman who could jump right into the major leagues (it would also be impossible to find a man, without baseball experience, who could jump right into the major leagues, but I’m not sure that Veeck ever let things like details get in his way). A few years later, Hope was watching a softball game and believed the players’ skill level was equivalent to Class-A minor leaguers.
When the Class-A Florida State League announced they were expanding in the fall of 1984, Hope saw his chance. He named his team the Sun Sox and held tryouts to fill his roster. He quickly learned that playing softball at a high level didn’t translate into playing baseball at a high level. Turns out, they’re two distinct sports. Without enough women to fill the entire roster, Hope switched gears and decided to supplement with male players.
The Florida State League wanted none of that though. The board of directors voted not to award Hope a franchise and after a fruitless search for another league that would grant him a franchise, the Sun Sox fizzled.
Hope didn’t give up on his dream of fielding a professional women’s team though. In the wake of A League of Their Own’s success, he made another run at it. He believed he could find enough women nationally who could play at the Single-A level and he eyed the Independent Northern League as a home base. Hope convinced the Coors Brewing Company to financially back the team and the Colorado Silver Bullets were born.
****
At major league baseball’s Winter Meetings on December 10, 1993 the Silver Bullets were introduced to the world.
Hall of Fame hopeful Phil Niekro was hired to manage the team on the field. He had managing experience in the Atlanta Braves’ organization and Hope was familiar with him from his time with Atlanta. Hope respected Niekro’s love and respect for baseball and believed he was uniquely up to the job before him.
Off the field, Sereen Samonds was hired as general manager. Fresh off winning the 1993 Female Executive of the Year award for her work general managing the Double-A Orlando Cubs, Samands was selected because she was always up for a challenge. Plus, it was important to Hope that the Silver Bullets championed more than just on-field play for women in baseball.
The work of filling the roster began immediately. A week after the announcement, the Silver Bullets held an invite-only tryout in Orlando. Players were invited if the team had already identified them as a top woman baseball player (such as Julie Croteau, the first woman to play for a college baseball team), and on the recommendations of college coaches and scouts.
After the first tryout, the Silver Bullets front office and coaches hit the road, holding 10 more tryouts in January and February of 1994. The plan was to find about 50 women to invite to training camp in March.
The tight turnaround didn’t leave much time for players to prepare. Still, overall, some 1,300 women showed up to the 11 tryouts for the once-in-a-lifetime shot to play professional baseball. The tryouts drew collegiate softball players, women who had played in Little League before they were pushed out, and accomplished athletes in other sports. Some of them had never played baseball before in their lives.
After leaving Orlando, the Silver Bullets hit Knoxville, Atlanta, Chicago, West Point, Houston, Sacramento, Mesa, Los Angeles, and Denver. Their final destination, and the final chance for players to earn their spot in training camp, was Tacoma. (And if you get that Steve Miller Band song stuck in your head reading through the list of cities, that makes two of us.)
On February 16, 1994, the last batch of Silver Bullets hopefuls arrived at the Tacoma Sports Center. It was 55 degrees, rainy, windy and they could not be more excited to demonstrate their baseball prowess on an indoor soccer field.
Amy Nutt, a Sports Illustrated writer, attended a previous tryout and wrote about the experience for the magazine. The tryouts were largely led by the Silver Bullets director of player development, Tommy Jones. Jones had a small northwest connection, having managed the Mariners’ Triple-A team in Calgary in 1990. He gave instructions to the players waiting in the stands:
“There are five categories you'll be tested on: speed, fielding, arm strength, throwing accuracy and hitting," Jones told us. "If you're not good in one, you'd better be very good in two. If you're not good in two, you'd better be excellent in three. And if you're not good in three, you'd better be exceptional in something."2
Nutt described being timed in the 40-yard dash, fielding groundballs at shortstop and throwing to first base, and hitting balls off a tee. After going through the stations, the players were lined up and Jones called out the numbers of the players who would come back for a longer tryout. Nutt, unfortunately, did not make the cut.
The Tacoma tryouts followed the same pattern as the previous tryouts. On the first day, 100 women turned out. The Seattle Times story on the tryouts was surprised to note that the hopefuls cheered for each other as they were put through their paces, noting the spontaneous applause that often erupted.
It stuck with Jones, too, who said, “Go to a men’s camp and no one’s saying anything. If anything, they’re silently rooting for the guy to do badly. There’s a lot more bonding here.”3 After being excluded from baseball for so long, the women were ready to support whoever had the goods to make the team.
Even though not many had true baseball experience, making the cut was tough. Of the 1,300 women who tried out, only 56 were invited to camp (47 were able to attend). The team was looking to fill a roster with 20 of them (25 players would eventually be rostered for the season). The odds were in nobody’s favor.
From the Tacoma tryouts, three players were invited to training camp: Leta Baysinger, Dallas Jorgenson, and D.J. Reed. They joined Debbie Rogers and Janice Halls as the Northwest’s representatives. Let’s learn a little more about them.
Leta Baysinger
Leta Baysinger was a 23-year-old middle school PE teacher in Shelton. She grew up dreaming about becoming a baseball player. “I used to say when I was young that maybe by the time I'm older it will happen. I'm sure every generation of women this century has said that,” she told the Seattle Times before heading to training camp.4
Baysinger didn’t let the lack of baseball opportunities keep her from playing sports though. She starred in four sports at Marshfield High School in North Bend, OR: volleyball, basketball, tennis, and softball. Softball was her strongest sport and she earned a scholarship to Pacific Lutheran University. During her time on the softball team, PLU made three appearances at the NAIA national tournament, winning the championship in 1992 She was a two time NAIA All-American and was inducted into PLU’s Hall of Fame in 2006.
Dallas Jorgenson and Janice Halls
Each of these players deserves credit in their own right, but their backgrounds are so similar it would feel redundant to list them separately. Both were Surrey, BC natives, both were 23 and education majors. Both played softball for Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC. They played on the British Columbia softball team at the 1988 Canada Summer Games and were members of an adult softball team, the Surrey Renegades.
In the Simon Fraser cafeteria one morning, Halls read a short blurb in the newspaper about the newly-formed Silver Bullets. She and Jorgenson knew immediately they would try for the team.
The pair first tried at the Sacramento tryout. Halls was selected, while Jorgeson had to go to another camp for another try. This lines up with their baseball experience. While Halls played baseball on boys teams until high school, when she was pushed into softball, Jorgenson hadn’t seriously considered baseball until she learned about the Silver Bullets.
“This is like a dream,” Halls told The Province after she was selected to training camp. “When I was growing up I always wanted to play pro ball, but I knew I never could because they don’t draft women in the major leagues.”5 Jorgenson said of her shot at the team, “To visit those ballparks, to play for Phil Niekro, to be part of history that means everything.”6
D.J. (Darrelyn Jo) Reed
D.J. Reed was 30 years old and a teacher at Kentwood High School in 1994 when she set out to make her childhood dream come true. She was the first girl to play Little League and American Legion in her hometown of Bellevue, WA.7 In a newspaper article when she was 8 years old, she shared that when she grew up she wanted to be a professional baseball player.8
Despite her success in baseball, she eventually hit the ceiling that so many before her hit. She couldn’t just keep signing up to play baseball. So, she did what so many did before her, and switched to softball. She turned into a good softball player, playing collegiately for Pacific Lutheran University.
Reed took two weeks off from her teaching job to go to training camp. She decided to give it those two weeks, and if she thought she could make the team she’d take off the final three months of school. That would mean forgoing a full third of her salary. She thought it was worth the shot to live her dream, but she was realistic about it. “It’s a fantastic idea, but I’m 30 years old. God knows what they’re looking for.”9
Debbie Rogers
At 35, Debbie Rogers was the second oldest player invited to training camp (shout out to the oldest, 41 year old Lisa Fritz of Cincinnati, OH). The firefighter from Olympia took her shot at the team at the tryout in Sacramento. Going for an outfielder spot, she turned heads and made a name for herself right away when she ran a 5.0 second 40-yeard dash, the fastest time clocked in any of the tryouts.10
She had played softball all her life. Her father played on an elite fastpitch team and she followed in his footsteps, the game coming naturally to her. Since baseball wasn’t an option, she embraced softball and played at the University of Arizona. In 1994, a decade after college, she still played softball, now on a team in Seattle.
Rogers left behind her firefighting job and two young kids to pursue her dream. She wondered if it would be worthwhile to leave them behind until September if she did make the team. Despite questioning whether she would stay with the team, she loved playing baseball. “I will never play softball again,” she told The Olympian earnestly.11
She was one of only two married women at the Silver Bullets training camp, and the only player with children. It underscored that she was in a different place in her life. But she still felt the gravity of what she was doing.
“We’ve been told we’re pioneers and we’re paving the way and opening up doors for 5- and 6- year olds,” Rogers said. “If you think about it, that’s true. The next women who come through here will probably make a million bucks.”12
*****
In mid-March, the Silver Bullets made their first cuts. D.J. Reed, Leta Baysinger, and Dallas Joregenson were sent home. In the next round, Debbie Rogers returned to her family. Janice Halls lasted the longest, until the final round.
Although none of the Northwest’s players made the inaugural Silver Bullets, they were among the elite women baseball players in the country. They made it to training camp, the top 50 women in a sport they’d never had the chance to play professionally before.
The Silver Bullets played their first game on May 8, 1994. It was Mother’s Day because when else would a professional women’s baseball team play their first game? They lost to the Northern League All-Stars 19-0. They may not have been ready to face minor leaguers, but 30 years ago today they showed us that women had been ready to play professional baseball for a long time.
*****
If you’re wondering what happened next with the Silver Bullets, I wrote about them in Baseball Prospectus a couple years ago for the anniversary of their last game: 25 Years later, the Colorado Silver Bullets Remain Important (the article is free to read if you sign up with your email address).
The Real Baseball Heroes
My 6 year old is well into his coach-pitch Little League season and I can say with absolute certainty, we do not pay the coaches of the coach-pitch level enough (pretty sure they don’t get paid anything). In a game a couple weeks ago, the opposing coach-pitcher took a line drive off his face, breaking his glasses in the process. In the last game, we almost witnessed a Josías Manzanillo situation and watched another get nailed by a line drive in the torso.
The coach-pitcher kneels not too far from the batter and throw from the elbow. It’s a great way to get pitches the kids can hit. It’s also a great way to watch their lives flash before all of our eyes. I feel like Little League should invest in some batting practice screens or something. In the meantime, they deserve to be recognized as the baseball heroes they are.
Shout Out to My Mom For Being the Best
Since I write about baseball, I end up writing a lot about my dad. It was his fandom and my relationship with him that drew me into baseball. But my mom deserves recognition too!
My mom was never that into baseball. She did attend one Seattle Pilots game and I guess it was so unremarkable I didn’t even know about it until a few years ago. But she married my dad and got sucked into life with baseball, whether she knew what she was getting into or not (and she likely did not because they got married in October and my dad spent part of their honeymoon swearing at a tv that wasn’t getting good reception of the playoffs).
She happily went to games with us on our family outings to the Kingdome, and she was just as into the 1995 playoff run as any of us. Joey Cora was her favorite (he was very popular with the mid-90s moms of the Pacific Northwest). She never really understood the obsession my dad and I had with baseball, but she still supported it.
She has read everything I’ve ever written. She saves newspapers for me. She tells me everything I write is amazing. She made sure I was well-acquainted with feminist rage (complimentary) and she was the first woman branch manager of the company she worked for around the time I was born. Very much a badass second-wave feminist woman who could take care of herself, thank you very much.
When I leapt into motherhood myself, I appreciated so much her support and her willingness to tell it like it was, to commiserate about the tough parts and to celebrate the beautiful parts. I think my kids are the best and I’m absolutely obsessed with them. It’s been particularly fun to share that with her because she sees them for the people they are and loves them exactly where they are, the same way she does for me.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. If I turn out like you when I grow up (whenever that is), I will turn into a spectacular human being.
French, Ben. “Baseball Sends Eleanor Engle Back To Typing.” The Daily News (Lebanon, PA), June 24, 1952, 12.
Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball by Barbara Gregorich
https://vault.si.com/vault/1994/05/30/out-of-her-league
FARREY, TOM. "WOMEN IN BASEBALL STRUGGLE FOR THEIR OWN FIELD OF DREAMSHOPEFULS FLOCK TO TACOMA FOR A CHANCE TO GO PRO." THE SEATTLE TIMES, February 17, 1994: C1.
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19940308&slug=1899097
“Duo going to Disneyworld.” The Province (Vancouver, BC), February 20, 1994, A63.
https://www.westword.com/news/storming-the-outfield-walls-5053741
I am also *technically* from Bellevue (it’s complicated) and generally have nothing but negative things to say about it, but in this case, I’m all, “Hell yeah, shoutout to Bellevue!”
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19940308&slug=1899097
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19940308&slug=1899097
Spethmann, Antje. “Dream is closer to reality.” The Olympian (Olympia, WA), February 5, 1994, B1.
Redd, Jeff. “Still in the ballgame.” The Olympian (Olympia, WA), March 20, 1994, B1.
Redd, Jeff. “Still in the ballgame.” The Olympian (Olympia, WA), March 20, 1994, B1.