Colorado Silver Bullets: Breaking Gender Barriers

On April third, nineteen ninety four, the very first barnstorming professional women's baseball team's roster was announced. It would be the Colorado Silver Bullets, sponsored by Corus Light, where they got their name of the Silver Bullet. Here's the story about this upstart team trying for equality in baseball today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. Now, before the roster was announced, and before all this even happened, before the team was put together, this was all an idea of Bob Hope. Now not the comedian Bob Hope that you might know of. No, this Bob Hope was a baseball executive and he had worked with the Atlanta Braves, and he had this idea back in nineteen eighty four to start a minor league team specifically for women, giving them a chance to maybe make it into the majors one day. He even got as far as having a team name as the Sun Socks and they would be a Class one minor league team in the Florida State League. But he couldn't get enough backing to make his dream of reality. So he put it on the shelf for about ten years. Then in nineteen ninety three, he still stuck with the idea, but instead of making it specifically a minor league team for the MLB, they would instead be a Barnstorming team similar to the Harlem Globetrotters, where they would travel and play multiple teams in multiple areas, and they would play minor league teams, independent league teams, semi pro teams all over North America. By December nineteen ninety three, they had already put together a schedule for the first Barnstorming women's professional baseball team, and they would play roughly fifty games the next year, and they would even play some games in major league stadiums at Candlestick Park, Oakland Costum, Seattle, Kingdome, and Mile High Stadium, playing games in both the United States and Canada. They were able to get a sponsorship from Cors Beer Company, whose cans are silver, where they got their name Silver Bullets, and they gave them a two million dollar sponsorship deal. So now they had the game scheduled, they had the backing of a sponsor, they were all ready heated to go. Now they needed to put the team together and they hired Phil Nicro, who Bob Hope had worked with when he was with the Atlanta Braves, who was a player and also the manager for the Tria team for the Braves, and Necro, seeing all the support from the schedule, seeing the commitment to the team, signed on because he thought women should have the opportunity to play competitive professional baseball and he thought there was enough talent that we may even see some in the major leagues. And they were also able to convince the only female general manager of a Double A team to join their ranks. That was Sharene Sanders, who was uniquely qualified to put together this team. And they began by first hosting an invite tryout for about for twenty two athletes that were recommended by college coaches and scouts. Then after that they went across the country doing tryouts and they saw over thirteen hundred athletes and they brought in a total of fifty five athletes to their spring training down in Florida. And this was a unique experience because many of these female athletes had played baseball up until about twelve years old, when they pushed females into softball instead of baseball, kind of separating the two they have some experience, it's just the chance for them to show it on a bigger scale. And after a spring training that lasted almost a month, they cut it down to twenty four players to join the very first Silver Bullets in their nineteen ninety four season. And this was making national news. It was on ABC, NBC, CBS, all the morning shows, all the big newspapers. They were getting publicity all over the place, which was great to raise the awareness of the team as they were going to travel across North America to play all these games, and it was a great chance to show that baseball is not just a man's sport. Now, there have been times back in the day where women have pitched in exhibition games versus major league teams. Previously, we did an episode on Babe Dickerson, who pitched a scoreless inning for the Philadelphia A's, and she wasn't the only one. This has happened multiple times. But it was really a chance maybe for some of these players to get a chance to make the major leagues. Now. That first year, they played forty four games out of the fifty they originally had scheduled, but unfortunately they had a losing record. That first season, but they did have two players, the and Ketchum and Julie Cortiu, who became the first women to sign single A and double A contracts with the Hawaiian Winter Baseball League. And in nineteen ninety four, there was a baseball strike and the Mets actually brought in Shannon Mitcham and Ann Williams to their spring training tryout, but both ended up being released soon after. But the team continued to play, barnstorming across North America in nineteen ninety five, and in nineteen ninety six they put together their very first winning season. They went twenty three and twenty two, but unfortunately, the Cors Beer Company decided to pull their sponsorship and with the team unable to find another sponsorship to keep them going, the team had to fold. Now you may think about this team similar to the league of their own, which is based off the All American Girl Professional Baseball League back in the fifties. Now this was very different though. That league was very much showing the girls as feminine as they played, have them wear skirts and be proper, But this was not that team. The Silver Bullets wore the regular baseball uniform that you would see any professional team play. They wore hats, they played as a professional baseball team. It wasn't a joke, it wasn't a punchline. These girls were really trying to make a name for themselves and have their team mean something and possibly make a major league roster. Though that didn't happen, it was still a great step for equality in sports. As now there are many coaches and managers that are female as well as executives and scouts, and still a low number compared to the men, but it's a start. And we had the very first Division one women's baseball player for Brown University, Olivia Burchardo, in twenty twenty three, and maybe one day in our lifetime we might see a women take the field in a Major League baseball game. Thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you enjoyed this, please like and subscribe wherever you're listening. It means a lot to me. 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