Trailblazing Women's Baseball: The Rise and Legacy of the Colorado Silver Bullets

Three decades ago, a pivotal moment in the history of women's baseball took place in an office in Golden, Colorado. It was there, in the summer of 1993, that promoter Bob Hope presented his idea of a women's professional barnstorming team to Coors Brewing president W. Leo Kiely and chief marketing officer Bill Weintraub. With the box office success of "A League of Their Own" the summer before catapulting the sport nationally, the brewery bought the pitch, and in 1994, the Colorado Silver Bullets were born.

Pioneering the Path for Women in Baseball

The Birth of the Colorado Silver Bullets

The creation of the Colorado Silver Bullets fulfilled a decade-long goal for Bob Hope, and it gave Coors Brewing a unique publicity angle for its flagship product, Coors Light. As Weintraub explained, "We couldn't afford to sponsor the NFL, MLB, NBA or NHL at the time, and we knew we needed to do something that was different to capture attention, and hopefully capture more beer drinkers. It was a way to get into sports that was something we could afford. … It felt right."With Coors Brewing's backing, the Silver Bullets embarked on a four-year run, playing against men's minor league, semi-pro, college, and independent teams. The team was largely composed of ex-softball players who acclimated to baseball, and they struggled to beat their male counterparts, posting a 58-127 record. However, they produced several memorable moments that live on in team lore, including Lisa Martinez's no-hitter, Tamara Holmes' inside-the-park grand slam, and Kim Braatz-Voisard's over-the-fence homer.

The Impact and Legacy of the Silver Bullets

The Silver Bullets' impact has been felt long after the team stopped touring, with an influx of women entering the pro baseball coaching ranks and taking on front-office roles in recent years. MLB has also started backing girls' baseball camps for Little League and high school-aged players via the Girls Baseball Breakthrough Series, and USA Baseball uses those camps, as well as MLB's GRIT Girls ID tour, to evaluate prospects for the women's national team.Veronica Alvarez, the USA Baseball manager and a Denver resident, has witnessed the progress firsthand. "The level of those girls has increased over the years, and now the overall quality of play has gotten better and is more impressive," she said. "Sometimes when it's hard to see the progress of our sport, that's what I'm analyzing, is the quality of women playing this game right now is high."The accomplishments of women like Olivia Pichardo, Kelsie Whitmore, Ashton Lansdell, and Jillian Albayati have built on the legacy of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and the Silver Bullets. However, Alvarez wishes women's baseball got more exposure as a whole, as the media tends to highlight "one-off individuals" rather than the broader progress of the sport.

The Ongoing Challenges and Aspirations for Women's Baseball

For Tamara Holmes, a current player in the All-American Women's Baseball Classic, the ultimate step in the game's evolution is not to have a woman make the majors. Instead, her dream is to create a women's professional league with talent from the U.S. and abroad, a goal that is likely still a ways off.Alvarez echoes this sentiment, noting that the lack of opportunities at the high school and college levels is a significant barrier to the growth of women's baseball. "There is a huge gap as far as the opportunities for these girls, and that keeps us from gaining more numbers for the sport," she said. "… Because of that gap, a lot of those young players we see (in camps) do switch to softball or just stop playing completely because they want to play baseball and the lack of opportunity doesn't allow them to keep playing."Despite the challenges, the progress made by the Silver Bullets and the current generation of women baseball players has been undeniable. As Alvarez reflects, "To me, the history of the sport is so important, and the Silver Bullets' path and their careers and their impact in those four years is very important. Them, and the women who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, those two groups of women are a huge part of our growth in this game and they still deserve to be recognized as we move forward."