• 353.5: The Senior Professional Baseball Association - With David Whitford [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]

  • Jul 8 2024
  • Length: 1 hr and 10 mins
  • Podcast

353.5: The Senior Professional Baseball Association - With David Whitford [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE] By cover art

353.5: The Senior Professional Baseball Association - With David Whitford [ARCHIVE RE-RELEASE]

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  • [An archive re-release favorite from September 2017, featuring one of professional baseball's most enigmatic leagues!] Inc. Editor-at-Large David Whitford (Extra Innings: A Season in the Senior League) joins host Tim Hanlon to retrace his journalistic odyssey covering the inaugural season of the short-lived, Florida-based Senior Professional Baseball Association (SPBA) in the winter of 1989-90. Whitford recalls the early-career events leading up to his plum writing assignment, and the process by which he went about chronicling this unique, but ultimately ill-fated eight-team circuit for former pro players over the age of 35 (32 for catchers). Despite half the franchises folding after the first 72-game season (and the rest of the league mid-way through the second), the Senior League afforded dozens of former big-league players and managers what Whitford dubbed a "life-after-death fantasy" – one that attracted both stars and journeymen alike for a chance to either stay fresh for one last shot in the Show, recapture past on-field glories, or simply earn some needed money. Whitford highlights a wide array of characters he met while covering the SBPA, including: Founder Jim Morley, the thirty-something hustler who erroneously believed a senior league could generate cash flow sufficient to sustain his debt-ridden real-estate empire;Commissioner Curt Flood, the indefatigable player’s union representative who broke Major League Baseball’s reserve clause, but sacrificed his career in the process; Pitcher Wayne Garland, the former Cleveland ace and early free-agent beneficiary who risked permanent shoulder damage by coming back to play pro ball after a five-year layoff;Ex-Padres/Astros fastballer (and pioneer descendant) Danny Boone, who reinvented himself into a knuckleball specialist, and improbably made it back to the bigs with Baltimore in 1990 following the SPBA season; AND A veritable who’s who of former big-name major league stars – each with their own personal reasons for returning to the diamonds: Bobby Bonds, Joaquin Andujar, Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers, Ferguson Jenkins, Dave Kingman, Bill “Spaceman” Lee, Graig Nettles, Mickey Rivers, and even manager Earl Weaver – just to name a few. + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: "Good Seats" Show & Defunct Team Merch: http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY Buy Us a Coffee: https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable SPONSOR THANKS: Royal Retros (promo code: SEATS): https://www.503-sports.com?aff=2 Old School Shirts.com (promo code: GOODSEATS) https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats BUY/READ EARLY & OFTEN: Extra Innings: A Season in the Senior League (2024): https://amzn.to/4cfkRbs FIND & FOLLOW: Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStillInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/Threads: https://www.threads.net/@goodseatsstillavailableFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
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