The Senior Professional Baseball Association, or SPBA was a winter baseball league started in 1989, played in Florida, for players 35 and over (32 and over for catchers). The eight teams were split into two divisions and played a 72-game schedule.
The league wasn’t attended well to start and only played one and a half seasons before ending. Four of the original clubs folded before the second year. The league picked up a teams in Arizona and California, other teams became travelling teams, but ultimately it didn’t last.
But that didn’t mean there weren’t successes as Ron Washington, Joaquin Andujar, Paul Mirabella, Danny Boone, and Ozzie Virgil Jrr. all signed MLB contracts after playing in the league. Mirabella, Boone and Virgil even appeared in the majors. In addition to these guys others who starred were Mickey Rivers, Jim Morrison, Willie Aikens, Juan Eichelberger, Milt Wilcox, Jon Matlack, Tim Stoddard, and Pete Falcone.
So with the history out of the way, why did I get this box. Well, I considered it an interesting odd ball. And it gave me a chance to learn about this part of baseball. But I would say another big reason is that there’s a good amount of TTM signers in this set and for some of them I didn’t really have many cards to send them. I just thought it would be interesting.
But just like a Senior in high school, when you are really looking forward to being done, what makes you stick around in a sport when you ended your career already? I know that players are different in that a lot of them will do anything to keep playing and they don’t necessarily want to retire. But for some of the names I wonder what attracted them to coming into the league. Yeah, money maybe (although I have no idea about the salaries), but was it just glory? Is that the same as MLB glory though?
Let’s see what we can get out of this bad boy.
1990 Pacific Senior League
I figured I would start by just looking at who I considered was the best or most interesting player for each team that I got in the box. That’s not necessarily who actually was the best player in this league, but it probably has more to do with their MLB career. You can see there are some pretty good names in this first group. But Rollie Fingers is probably the best of this bunch.
As far as the cards go, the design is pretty good. I think the upsides to me are the colors and that they are tailored to team colors. The logos are great for the most part, aside from the boring St. Lucie Legends logo. The pictures are mostly poses and that’s probably because they were done before the season started. But not too bad. If you consider some other designs in 1989 and 1990 for MLB products, this is actually really good.
Some other “stars” here with Jenkins and Tiant being the best of the bunch. Although Leonard did win 20 games multiple times. Doc Ellis appears for two reasons: the stories of the LSD game and the fact that he has the plastic shirt on. Oh yeah, he had a few good years as well.
Another thing I see about this design is that it really looks like something that Topps would do for Big League. Sure, it’s a different feel, but it is reminiscent of it. Or maybe Big League is reminiscent of this a little bit. It’s certainly got a similar style.
I think my only real negative on this is that the stars on the top and side of the design really give the impression that all the cards are miscut. I don’t really think they are too much, but it tricks your eye into seeing that.
“Back” To Baseball
Given that there isn’t too much to the league at this point, there’s not too much to the backs either. All of them have text instead of stats because there aren’t any stats for the league yet.
The color scheme is a bit odd. While you can see the name OK with the red text on the blue background, the smaller text like his vitals are almost illegible. I think white text would have done better there. There’s not too much to complain about here given this is the inaugural season and all.
Senior Living
These are some other cards that got me thinking a bit. My Dad went to Ulti-Met week around this time (maybe it was 1991) and the Jamie Easterly card reminds me of that. He just looks like someone that would have played on one of my Dad’s teams. The same could be said for Jerry Grote, but I would also tell you that he was actually at Ulti-Met week when I was there. I definitely got his autograph.
Dick Williams being labelled as “The Old Master” seemed odd. I mean, your labelling someone as “old” as part of a “senior” league. But I thought the moniker had a Star Wars/Jedi feel to it too. As for Nettles, didn’t we see his card already? Yes, he was listed as a manager for the Legends and was actually a player/manager I think who was traded to the Explorers later in the year. In one of those places he played with his brother.
They did get some action shots of these guys like the Dan Driessen “In Action” card. These are in addition to cards of them not in action. I think that and the fact that there are the two Graig Nettles cards mean they must have come back for other photos.
Earl Weaver and Tom Zimmer made me think a bit. After so many years managing in the majors, Earl Weaver comes in to give his expertise to this league. That had me wondering why. But I guess that’s less so than why the players come back because it’s not like Earl does much more than sit at the top step of a dugout. But then Tom Zimmer looks so young it made me think about the guys he is “coaching”. I didn’t check his age but it appeared odd to me.
And finally ladies and gentleman… Pete LaCock.
Flooded
Curt Flood was the commissioner of the league and that had me with the feeling of him being “The Man” after fighting “The Man” during his playing career. But this wasn’t the only time that he participated in an “alternative” league. In the mid-90’s he was part of a group that headed up the UBL or United Baseball League. They got a TV deal and then things failed when Fox Sports bought up the company they did the deal with.
Extras
Stickers are always nice, most of the time anyway. They are nice when it’s a team logo but not as nice when it’s a league logo or a list of teams. Those are informative, but that’s not why I get a sticker. I dig the Tropics logo as it reminds me of the Will Ferrell movie. It’s almost the same logo and I think exactly the same colors as the team in that movie.
More Stuff
As I said earlier, one of the reasons that I picked up a box was because of the TTM cards I could potentially get out of it. I kept five packs aside unopened as I usually do as well. As for a list of TTM guys I found that I’ve had success with before: Gene Clines, Dave LaRoche, Dyar Miller, Cecil Cooper, Johnny Grubb, Jim Morrison, Joe Sambito, Rick Manning, Leon Roberts, Bob Shirley, Garth Iorg, Toby Harrah, Randy Niemann, Randy Lerch, and Gene Richards. There were some others too but those are the guys that stuck out to me.
This was a fun box to open. I’m actually considering getting other products around this league. Again I think the main purpose there is some kind of interesting, different or oddball fodder for TTMs. Plus, I had a pretty good time in finding out more about the league.
For more about the SPBA, check out Wikipedia.