Scott Adamson, Author at Adamsonmedia.com

Remembering the APSPL

The Athletes Unlimited Softball League is winding down its inaugural season this weekend, with the Bandits taking on the Talons in a best-of-three championship series in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

While the four AUSL teams (the Blaze and Volts are the other two) competed in a touring format this year, the league will move to a city-based model in 2026 and expand to six clubs.

**Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Bluesky @scottadamson1960.bsky.social**

By all indications, the women’s professional game is trending in the right direction.

Think of men’s softball, however, and you might envision teams stocked with big-gutted sluggers who are less concerned with the game’s final out than the outing for beer and pizza that comes afterwards.

Yet, there was a time when such weekend warriors played for pay, beginning with the American Professional Slo-Pitch League.

The APSPL was the brainchild of Bill Byrne, founder of the National Scouting Association. The NSA was designed to help match college athletes with pro teams, and after a stint in the World Football League (the 1974 Chicago Fire and 1975 Shreveport Steamer), he turned his attention to softball in 1976.

That year – in May – Byrne announced the formation of the APSPL, which would use a 12-inch ball and begin play on 1977 with four divisions. In mid-June Byrne revealed that the first four franchises would be located in Cleveland, Louisville, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., and he was looking to start play with 16 franchises.

In a news release distributed to various outlets, Byrne said that the season would run from June to September with teams playing one game during the week and up to two on weekends. The season, consisting of 56 games, would conclude with a $100,000 championship series.

“The franchise fee is $25,000,” Byrne said. “In order for our standards to remain high, all franchises must have a park with sufficient lighting for color television, softball diamond of the highest quality, plenty of parking, and ample seating capacity. We are taking the year 1976 for organizational purposes and the establishment of a merchandising division, property rights and license division, film division, television division, marketing division, publicity division and a director of player operations.”

APSPL staff member Tim Koelble said that the time was right for men’s pro softball.

“This is a sport that’s never been tapped at this level,” Koelble said in a United Press International interview in November, 1976. “Surveys show that 26 million people play slo-pitch softball in America. That includes things like church leagues. We figure we can even make it just by drawing crowds from the people who play the game now.”

By August, Byrne’s plans had been scaled back.

“There are 15 or 20 groups we are working with,” Byrne told Associated Press. “When we see they are financially stable and have a suitable playing site available, then we’ll make some decisions. I’d like to have eight to 10 teams the first year – solid franchises like the four we have now.”

Unlike many upstarts, this one actually got off the ground.

The inaugural season featured 12 teams: the Baltimore Monuments, Chicago Storm, Cincinnati Suds, Cleveland Jaybirds, Columbus All-Americans, Detroit Caesars, Kentucky Bourbons, Milwaukee Copper Hearth, Minnesota Goofy’s, New York Clippers, Pittsburgh Hardhats and Trenton Statesmen.

There were a few occasions where the product seemed more like a home run derby; Minnesota and Detroit combined for 78-runs in one contest, and a four-game series between Chicago and Detroit produced 189 runs.

But as the season wore on the games became more competitive. All things considered, year one was a success.

The Caesars claimed the inaugural championship, sweeping Baltimore in four games. The winners featured former Detroit Tigers standouts Norm Cash and Jim Northrup, and several former Major League Baseball players participated in the league.

Chicago’s Benny “The Thumper” Holt led the APSPL in home runs with 89 (he is in the Chicago Softball Hall of Fame).

On July 20, 1977, baseball legend Whitey Ford was named the APSPL’s first commissioner, which gave the circuit some additional positive publicity.

“To say I’m enthusiastic about this new job is a gross understatement,” Ford said in an AP story. “Slo-pitch is going to fill avoid we have long had in our calendar of professional sports.”

And once the season was completed, former New York Yankees All-Star Joe Pepitone decided to switch sports and sign a two-year contract with the Statesmen.

In 1979 the league became a part of television history when – on September 7 – the game between the Milwaukee Schlitz (the club rebranded from Copper Hearth in 1978) and Kentucky Bourbons was the first live event ever televised by ESPN.

The APSPL had a two-year contract with the network.

But, as is the case with many such niche leagues, the APSPL came with an expiration date. It completed four seasons and in 1981 merged with the North American Slo-Pitch League to form the United Professional Softball League, which lasted through the 1982 campaign.

But the novelty was wearing off, teams came and went, and in the summer of 1983 that league quietly folded. Thus, the era of pro men’s slo-pitch came to an end.

No doubt slo-pitch is fun to play, and sometimes fun to watch. Still, the women’s fast-pitch version has helped transform the game into a “major” sport, with college softball a major draw and professional competition taking off.

It’s fun to think back on the days of the high-scoring APSPL – gotta love those 78-run contests – but high-level softball has evolved. And thanks to female athletes, its best days are still ahead.

The second extinction

“Settle down, class … settle down. Please return to your squabs and let’s go ahead and get today’s lesson started.”

Instructor Provident decreased the illumination in the circular, revolving room, and with a wave of their hand produced a glowing, three-dimensional orb. The image slowly floated among the students so each could get a look at it.

“OK,” Provident said. “Today we’re continuing our study of planetary science. Does anyone know this one?”

Right hands went up immediately, but none more enthusiastically than the pupil who was almost always front and center during science segments.

“Tavor, you were first, so take it away.”

“That’s the Planet Earth,” she said.

“Correct. What do you know about Planet Earth?”

Tavor had already decided she wanted to become an astrogeologist, and prided herself on her knowledge of celestial bodies and their histories. What did she know about Earth?

Plenty.

“The Earth is 4.544 billion years old and its surface is 71 percent water,” she said. “The first life forms were prokaryotes, and it’s generally considered that sponges were the first animal-type organisms on the planet. The first vertebrates appeared roughly 500 million years ago.”

“Excellent,” Provident said. “You’ve certainly done your research.”

“Earth fascinates me, Instructor,” Tavor said. “Once I get to Advance Academy, I plan to make it my Skill Expertise.”

“Would you care to tell me – and the class – what it is about Earth that interests you most? I’m certain we all want to hear it.”

Tavor smiled and rose, relishing the opportunity to share her curiosity.

“Yes, I would, thank you,” she said. “Originally, I was drawn to the massive asteroid impact that caused the extinction event there 67 million years ago,” she explained. “At that point dinosaurs ruled the planet – it was what Earth scientists referred to as the Mesozoic Era – and there was also sea life, including flying reptiles. The extinction was triggered by the Chicxulub impactor, an asteroid which is estimated to have been 10 kilometers in diameter. It created wildfires and tsunamis, and ultimately led to the extinction of more than three-quarters of plant and animal life on Earth.”

“That’s fascinating, Tavor,” Provident said.

“It is, but not nearly so much as the second extinction event on the planet a million years ago,” added the student. “Do you guys want to hear about that?”

Her classmates nodded approvingly.

“The 2024 YR4 meteor was discovered in Earth Year 2024, and was predicted to pass by Earth in 2032,” she said. “Whereas the Chicxulub impactor was 10 kilometers in diameter, 2024 YR4 was just 0.09 kilometers – significant, certainly, but much smaller. As scientists studied it more closely, they determined that it would not create an extinction level event were it to make impact, but was potentially what they called a ‘city killer’ – an asteroid that would cause significant loss of life and damage. Still, their early predictions were that it would miss the Earth entirely.”

Raven, a classmate of Tavor’s, raised her hand.

“Go ahead, Raven,” Provident said.

“Tavor, I’m a little confused,” she said, pointing to the orb. “I’ve done a bit of research on Planet Earth as well, and don’t understand how the 2024 YR4 asteroid – considering its size – could’ve basically wiped out human life on the planet. As we know, Planet Earth is now home mostly to rodents and sea creatures, so something else had to happen, didn’t it?”

“Something did, indeed,” Tavor said. “Turns out, by 2032, society across the planet had mostly collapsed. There was violence and chaos across the globe. So, a group of international scientists helped build a rocket that could intercept 2024 YR4.”

Raven looked confused.

“Wait … they tried to destroy the asteroid? Did they think by doing that it would somehow unify the planet?”

“That’s what’s so interesting to me,” Tavor said. “According to records that have been uncovered, the scientists had no intention of stopping it … instead, they armed the rocket with so many explosives that they were able to dock it with the meteor, supercharge it with nuclear energy, and transform it into an extinction level asteroid. They changed a city killer into a planet killer.

“They called the mission ‘Operation Own Goal,’ and they’re considered heroes.”

Bassett’s big idea

On July 14, 1985, the United States Football League concluded its third season with the Baltimore Stars defeating the Oakland Invaders, 28-24, in the USFL Championship Game.

That would be the original league’s final contest.

While the circuit planned to move to a fall slate in 1986 – and go head-to-head with the NFL – it never made it that far.

The USFL had yo-yoed from 12 flagship franchises in 1983 to 18 in 1984 and 14 in year three. The last season featured an Eastern Conference (Stars, Birmingham Stallions, Jacksonville Bulls, Memphis Showboats, Orlando Renegades, New Jersey Generals and Tampa Bay Bandits) and Western Conference (Arizona Outlaws, Denver Gold, Houston Gamblers, Los Angeles Express, Invaders, Portland Breakers and San Antonio Gunslingers).

An antitrust suit against the NFL that netted just $3.76 was hundreds of millions of dollars shy of what the USFL needed to land a network TV contract and make the switch, so it joined the crowded graveyard of leagues that died young. (Jurors decided the NFL had, in fact, violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, but when it came time to award damages, they believed the USFL’s problems were more due to its own mismanagement than the NFL’s television monopoly).

John Bassett saw this coming.

When, in April of 1985, the majority of other owners followed the lead of the New Jersey Generals’ Donald Trump and opted to abandon the spring format, the money man behind the Bandits wanted no part of it. Only Denver Gold owner Doug Spedding sided with Bassett in a vote that went 13-2 in favor of moving to the fall.

Bassett announced that his franchise would withdraw from the USFL and become part a new multi-sport league which would include golf, tennis, indoor soccer and a few Olympic sports to go along with football.

“We’ve already got 10 or 11 teams,” Bassett said in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times on April 30, 1985. “They’re banking on winning a lawsuit that will give them TV. I presented them with a program to guarantee them a $1.5 million minimum profit or one of a maximum $9 million. They didn’t like it, because they had to give me control of the league.”

Spedding said cities that were already committed to Bassett’s venture were Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, London (England), Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Philadelphia.

Bassett eyed additional international franchises for several Canadian cities as well as Paris, Rome and West Berlin. It was a bold idea.

“I’m just not going to sit back and be told what to do by a bunch of people who don’t know how to run a business,” Bassett said. “The United States Football League’s chances of being successful in the fall are very slim.”

While the World Football League was a monumental financial disaster, his Memphis Southmen (1974-75) always got paid and paid on time. That was also true with the Bandits.

“After three years, we’re the only team with the same owner, the same town, the same coach that hasn’t been moved, sold or gone out of business, so why should I go to the fall?” Bassett said in a New York Times story on May 5, 1985.

Yet, while Bassett was skeptical of the USFL trying to share a season with the NFL, Stars general partner Myles Tanenbaum thought a multi-sport league was outlandish.

“There will not be a league to even tempt success,” Tanenbaum said. “That’s my judgment. It’s like, ‘Why didn’t you like the movie? It never should’ve been made.’ None of it made any sense to me.”

Bassett claimed to have signed eight players for his unnamed gridiron organization, including a pair of first round draft picks. Among them were UNLV quarterback Randall Cunningham, Memphis State defensive back Donnie Elder, Alabama running back Ricky Moore, Wisconsin center Dan Turk, Colgate QB Steve Calabria and Virginia Tech tight end Joe Jones.

“They can talk to the NFL club that drafts them and if they get offered more, they can be released unless we match their offer,” Bassett told Associated Press.

While Bassett was battling the USFL, however, he was facing a much bigger battle with cancer. In February, 1985, he was diagnosed with a pair of brain tumors.

“I think the current frustration of this thing with the fall has caused the cancer to flare up,” he said in May. “I’ve decided I’m going to do only the right thing, and I’m staying in the spring because it’s right.”

Sadly, by July his condition had worsened to the point that he was forced to abandon his plans for a “Wide World of Sports” type league. He died on May 14, 1986, at age 47.

Forty years later, it’s fun to think how all of this might’ve played out. As much as I was a fan of Bassett (he brought the World Hockey Association to my hometown of Birmingham), the multi-sport league approach did seem a bit ridiculous. But I’d have loved to see him take the reins of another spring football league and watch how far it could go under his watch.

The USFL, of course, planned to start the 1986 season with eight teams – the Outlaws, Stars, Stallions, Bulls, Showboats, Generals, Renegades and Bandits (under new ownership). Had the league gotten a windfall in the lawsuit they would’ve certainly had a fall season – and it likely would’ve been a disaster.

Taking on the NFL wasn’t just a case of flying too close to the sun – it was tantamount to attempting a landing. While the National Football League wasn’t the juggernaut then it is now, I’m convinced its 28 franchises and multiple network TV deals would’ve crushed the competition. The whole reason the USFL was formed to begin with was to avoid such a no-win situation.

Then again, we’ll never know.

Regardless, that era was a fun time to be a football fan. And I’ll always admire Bassett for his fighting spirit – and belief in spring ball.