The new team in town

The Colorado Silver Bullets – the all-women's baseball team – hold their first public tryout 31 years ago today in Orlando, Fla.

The team ends up playing four seasons, mostly against semipro and amateur men’s teams, before disbanding after the 1997 season.

Two of their Bullets’ best – first baseman Julie Croteau and pitcher Lee Anne Ketcham – also play in the Major League Baseball-sanctioned Hawaii Winter League after the 1994 season.

Croteau, who in 1989 at St. Mary’s College of Maryland becomes the first woman to play men’s college baseball, rejects the notion that the Silver Bullets are little more than a novelty.

“Baseball players are baseball players,” Croteau says. “You shouldn’t have to qualify it. No asterisks.”

The biggest name on the Silver Bullets turns out to be their manager, Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro. Niekro, who like Croteau and his players, does not treat his job as a sideshow.

In four seasons, the Silver Bullets put together a record of 58-127 against all-male teams. The Silver Bullets’ final season is their best as they go 23-22 in 1997.

“We’re not interested in batting average, and wins and losses. That’s not how you evaluate,” Niekro says midway through the Silver Bullets’ first season in 1994.

“It’s the experience you want,” Niekro says. “We’ve been doing this for only four months. Some of the teams we’ve been playing have guys who have been together for 20 years.”

Phil Niekro