The Senior Professional Baseball Association , referred to commonly as the Senior League , was a winter baseball league based in Florida for players age 35 and over, with a minimum age of 32 for catchers. The league began play in 1989 and had eight teams in two divisions and a 72-game schedule. Pitchers Rollie Fingers , Ferguson Jenkins (both future Hall of Famers ), and Vida Blue , outfielder Dave Kingman , and managers Earl Weaver and Dick Williams were the league's marquee names; and former big league outfielder Curt Flood was the circuit's first Commissioner. At age 54, Ed Rakow was the league's oldest player.
17-617: The San Bernardino Pride was a baseball club who played in the Senior Professional Baseball Association in 1990 for the league's second season. They played its home games at Fiscalini Field in San Bernardino, California . Former Baltimore Orioles infielder Rich Dauer was the playing manager of the Pride, while Tom Thompson served as the bench coach for the team. The best-known names on
34-573: A 2.12 ERA. Joaquín Andújar of Gold Coast had 5 wins and an ERA of 1.31. In the first weekend of February 1990, the league's top four teams participated in a three-game, single elimination tournament with a rather unusual format. On February 2, the league's second place clubs faced off. The Explorers defeated the Sun Sox for a chance to face the St. Petersburg Pelicans. The next day, the Pelicans beat
51-602: The Seattle Mariners who, despite playing in a pitchers park, had one of the better offenses in the American League that season, winning 93 games. But Johnson was not retained in 2004 despite this, as the offense slumped over the last month of the season. Since 2005, he has worked in the Mets organization, first as a roving hitting instructor, then as minor league hitting coordinator. With Johnson overseeing
68-658: The University of Southern California , where he earned three national championships in baseball and two in football, before playing as a running back in the WFL , the CFL , the NFL , and the USFL . The Pride had a record of 13-12 and were in third place when the league canceled the season on December 26, 1990. An apparent rift between teams owners forced cancellation of all remaining games. At
85-591: The Denver Zephyrs, in 1991 and 1992, and as manager of their highest A ball affiliate, the Stockton Ports, in 1993 and 1994. In December 1994, Lamar Johnson was named by manager Phil Garner as the hitting coach for the Brewers big league club. After having scored only 547 runs in 1994, the club scored 740 runs in 1995, and then 894 runs in 1996, a franchise record. After the offense stagnated over
102-791: The Explorers 9–2 to advance to the league championship game against the West Palm Beach Tropics. On February 4, 1990, the Pelicans, powered by Lamar Johnson 's home run and 3 RBIs, beat the Tropics 12–4 for the league's first championship. The 1989-90 player statistics for all teams were published in the Sporting News on February 12, 1990, pages 30–31 "Assessing the Boys of Winter". 1989/1990 Teams Northern Division Southern Division For its second season, four of
119-697: The North, the St. Petersburg Pelicans finished in first, and the Bradenton Explorers were second, narrowly holding off the Orlando Juice . Infielder Ron Washington of West Palm Beach was the league's offensive star, hitting .359 with a league leading 73 RBIs and winning the MVP award . Washington's teammate Mickey Rivers hit .366, and Gold Coast Sun Bert Campaneris , the oldest everyday player in
136-791: The SPBA. Lamar Johnson (baseball) Lamar Johnson Sr. (born September 2, 1950) is a retired American professional baseball player and former hitting coach for the Milwaukee Brewers , Kansas City Royals , Seattle Mariners and New York Mets . Johnson was a first baseman who played in the Major Leagues from 1974 to 1982 for the Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers . A right-handed batter and thrower, Johnson stood 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and weighed 215 pounds (98 kg). On perhaps
153-612: The best day in his career, on June 19, 1977, against the A's, Johnson sang the National Anthem before the game, and followed up with two homers, the only White Sox hits on the day, as the Sox won 2-1. Lamar's coaching career began in 1988, when he was hired by the Milwaukee Brewers as a minor league hitting instructor. He coached in Milwaukee's minor league system through 1994, serving as the hitting coach for their AAA affiliate,
170-423: The development of young hitters, the Mets farm system has produced enough talent that on April 26, 2011, the team fielded a starting lineup of all homegrown players for the first time since 1971. On May 26, 2014, Johnson was made the new hitting coach for the Mets, replacing Dave Hudgens . He served through the end of the season, then was reassigned as a minor league hitting instructor in the Mets' organization. He
187-549: The franchise record today. Of Jermaine Dye , who emerged in those years as a star player, beat writer Joe Posnanski wrote "Dye used to have a loopy swing. Now, thanks in part to hitting coach Lamar Johnson, the swing is as compact as a Honda." But Johnson was fired again nonetheless after the 2002 season, in which the Royals finished 11th in the American League in runs scored. In 2003, Johnson served as hitting coach for
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#1732776811039204-595: The league at 47, stole 16 bases. Bradenton's Jim Morrison hit .290 with 55 RBIs and led the league with 17 homers. Tim Ireland of Fort Myers hit a league best .374, and his teammate Kim Allen paced the circuit with 33 stolen bases. Willie Aikens hit 12 home runs and had 58 RBIs. West Palm Beach pitcher Juan Eichelberger went 11–5 with a 2.90 ERA , and St. Petersburg's Milt Wilcox went 12–3. Jon Matlack , Tim Stoddard , and Pete Falcone each won 10 games. Bradenton's Rick Lysander saved 11 games, and Winter Haven's Bill Campbell notched 5 saves to go along with
221-800: The league's eight teams (Gold Coast, Orlando, St. Lucie, and Winter Haven) folded; the West Palm Beach Tropics became a traveling team known as the Florida Tropics , and the Explorers moved from Bradenton to Daytona Beach, becoming the Daytona Beach Explorers . The circuit then added clubs in Arizona, the Sun City Rays , as well as in California, the San Bernardino Pride . In addition, the league dropped
238-538: The minimum age to 34 and shortened the season to 56 games. Less than halfway through its second season, the SPBA folded on December 26, 1990. 1990/1991 Standings Ron Washington , Joaquín Andújar , Paul Mirabella , Danny Boone , and Ozzie Virgil Jr. signed Major League Baseball contracts after playing in the Senior League; Mirabella, Boone, and Virgil all played in the Majors after their appearances in
255-528: The next two seasons, Johnson was fired by the Brewers in August 1998. But just three months later, the Kansas City Royals hired him to serve in the same capacity. With the Royals, Johnson again had a remarkable amount of initial success. After having scored 714 runs in 1998, the team scored a club record 856 runs in 1999, and then broke that record again in 2000 by scoring 879 runs, which remains
272-412: The roster were Vida Blue , the 1971 American League MVP and Cy Young Award winner , and Mike Norris , a 22-game winner for the 1980 Oakland Athletics . Other players included Derrel Thomas , who played for seven teams during a 15-year major league career, as well as the brothers Gary and Ron Roenicke . The Pride also had its version of Bo Jackson in outfielder Anthony Davis , a two-sport star at
289-510: The time, the teams had not quite reached the halfway point in a planned 56-game schedule. Senior Professional Baseball Association Throughout the inaugural season, most clubs struggled with poor attendance, with an average attendance of less than 1,000 per game. On the field, the West Palm Beach Tropics ran away with the league's South Division, finishing 15 games ahead of the second place Fort Myers Sun Sox . In
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