The Colorado Silver Bullets were an all-female professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

team that played in the United States from 1994 to 1997. The Bullets were the first such team since the folding of the

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley, which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the Uni ...

in 1954.

History

Founding

The team was owned by Hope Beckham Inc. a partnership consisting of Paul Beckham and Bob Hope in Atlanta, Georgia. Back in the 1980s, Bob Hope, a former

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

executive and the owner of an Atlanta public relations firm, had tried to field a women's minor league team called the Sun Sox. He organized and held tryouts for the team, but the minor league system would not allow them into any league. Hope then decided to put together a team outside of professionally organized baseball and secured about $2 million dollars in sponsorship from

Coors Brewing Company The Coors Brewing Company is an American brewery and beer company based in Golden, Colorado, that was founded in 1873. In 2005, Adolph Coors Company, the holding company that owned Coors Brewing, merged with Molson, Inc. to become Molson Coor ...

. (The team was named after its sponsor as

Coors Light Coors Light is a 4.2% ABV light American lager beer sold by Coors (currently Molson Coors) of Chicago, Illinois. It was first produced in 1978 by the Coors Brewing Company. They had briefly produced a different low-alcohol beer by the same n ...

calls itself the "silver bullet" of

beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

s.) With future Hall-of-Famer

Phil Niekro Philip Henry Niekro ( ; April 1, 1939 – December 26, 2020), nicknamed "Knucksie", was an American baseball pitcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, N ...

on board as the manager, the Silver Bullets held tryouts across the country. Most of the players were top

college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is nor ...

players. Many had played some baseball as young girls, but most had been excluded from playing past the age of twelve. Lee Ann Ketcham played baseball right through high school in Alabama but switched to softball for college. Julie Croteau went to court to play baseball at her high school in Virginia and lost, but went on to become the first woman to play and eventually to coach baseball at the college level. Their coaches were former major leaguers, including Joe Pignatano, Joe Niekro,

Johnny Grubb John Maywood Grubb, Jr. (born August 4, 1948) is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder and designated hitter, who also occasionally played at first base. He played with the San Diego Padres (1972–1976), Cleveland Indians (1977 ...

Al Bumbry Alonza Benjamin Bumbry (né Bumbrey; born April 21, 1947) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder who played for the Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres from 1972 through 1985. Bumbry was the 1973 Major League Baseball Rook ...

and their manager, Phil Niekro, who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997, surrounded by his new team.

Play

The Silver Bullets played 44 games during their first season, and 195 games over a four-year period from 1994-1997 by

barnstorming Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses. Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in t ...

the country playing men's all-star amateur and semi-pro teams. Among their opponents were the Navy Mariners, an all-star team of players stationed at

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

bases, and the Hollywood Star Sox, a team of actors and other

entertainment industry Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...

professionals captained by Jonathan Silverman. (Those games were played at, respectively, Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington, D.C., and the Epicenter in

Rancho Cucamonga, California Rancho Cucamonga ( ) is a city located just south of the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest in San Bernardino County, California, United States. About east of Downtown Los Angeles, Rancho Cucamonga is the List ...

.) Some of the team's games were televised live across the U.S. on Prime Sports, now

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

. In their first two seasons, the Bullets didn't win a lot of games, though their record did improve; it was not until their fourth and final season that they managed a winning record. The team established a base in

Albany, Georgia Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in Southwest Geo ...

, and played about 20 games a year at Paul Eames Sports Complex for two seasons, starting in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

. After four seasons, the Bullets folded in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

when Coors Brewing Company decided not to continue with their sponsorship. Despite much effort the team was unable to secure alternate funding and had to disband.

Legacy

The Silver Bullets broke a lot of new ground and have been recognized by Cooperstown. After the 1994 season, Lee Anne Ketcham and Julie Croteau became the first women to sign with the Class A and AA men's Hawaii Winter Baseball league. The next spring, as the

1994 baseball strike The year 1994 was designated as the "International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Charter, Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 ...

remained unresolved and MLB teams attempted to find

replacement players In professional sports, a replacement player is an athlete who is not a member of the league's players association and plays during a labor dispute such as a strike or lockout, serving as a strikebreaker. Replacements related to strikes are most ...

, the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

brought infielder Shannan Mitchem and pitcher Ann Williams to

spring training Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...

for a tryout, although both were released soon afterward.{{cite book , last1=Markusen , first1=Bruce , title=Tales from the Mets Dugout , date=2007 , publisher= Sports Publishing , location=

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in ...

, isbn=978-1-59670-217-2 , page=147 , language=en In 1996, four players hit home runs and Pam Davis, in a guest appearance with the AA

Jacksonville Suns The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins. They are located in Jacksonville, Florida, and are named for shrimp caught in the area. The team pla ...

, pitched a scoreless inning of relief against the Australian Olympic men's team. In 1997, Jenny Dalton, Toni Heisler and

Tamara Holmes Tamara Holmes (born June 2, 1974) is a baseball player who competed with the Colorado Silver Bullets and the United States women's national baseball team which won a gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games The 2015 Pan Ame ...

hit over .300 and the team dramatically won their final game to finish with a record of 23-22, for their first winning season. Phil Niekro described that final game as being as exciting as a

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

game.

References

External links