Detroit Auto Kings
Encyclopedia
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
team that played during the 1980 season in the North American Softball League (NASL), one of three professional softball leagues active in the pro softball era. The Auto Kings played at Memorial Field in Eastpointe, Michigan
Eastpointe, Michigan
Eastpointe is a city in Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 34,077. Eastpointe forms a part of the Metro Detroit area. It borders on 8 Mile Road on the northern edge of Detroit.- History :The community was first settled by Irish and German...
, (named East Detroit at that time) and took over as the Detroit professional team when the Detroit Caesars
Detroit Caesars
The Detroit Caesars were a professional softball team that began play in the American Professional Slow Pitch Softball League in 1977, the first of three professional softball leagues.-History:...
disbanded after their 1979 season. The Auto Kings roster featured five members of Detroit Caesar teams - outfielder Dan Murphy, third-baseman Gary Geister, outfielder Mike Gouin, first-baseman Cal Carmen, and pitcher Tony Mazza.
Two teams came to the newly formed NASL from the APSPL - the Cleveland Competitors, owned by Ted Stepien
Ted Stepien
Ted Stepien was the former owner of the National Basketball Association's Cleveland Cavaliers. After becoming wealthy as the founder of Nationwide Advertising Service, Stepien purchased the Cavaliers in the spring of 1980...
, league President and former owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers are a professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They began playing in the National Basketball Association in 1970 as an expansion team...
, along with the APSPL champion Milwaukee Schlitz. Former MLB players Mudcat Grant
Mudcat Grant
James Timothy "Mudcat" Grant is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Cleveland Indians , Minnesota Twins , Los Angeles Dodgers , Montreal Expos , St. Louis Cardinals , Oakland Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates...
and Joe Pepitone
Joe Pepitone
Joseph "Joe" Anthony Pepitone is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and outfielder who played the bulk of his career for the New York Yankees. He also played several seasons with the Chicago Cubs and had short stints with the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves...
served as PR officials for the league. Pepitone was a former player for the Trenton franchise in the APSPL. Continuing the Caesars tradition of former Detroit Tigers turning to play professional softball, the Auto Kings featured former Detroit Tigers outfielder Mickey Stanley
Mickey Stanley
Mitchell Jack "Mickey" Stanley was a baseball player for the Detroit Tigers from 1964-1978. Stanley was known as a superb defensive outfielder over his 15-year career, though he is best remembered for the last few weeks of the 1968 season.-Early life:Stanley prepped at Ottawa Hills High School in...
.
Also continuing the Caesars tradition, the former Tiger failed to play a major role or dominate the league, just as former Caesars players Norm Cash
Norm Cash
Norman Dalton Cash was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball who spent almost his entire career with the Detroit Tigers...
and Jim Northrup failed to do. Jerry Green of the Detroit News wrote a 2001 article about Caesars owner Mike Illitch in which he wrote that the former Tigers "tore the league apart." In reality, the former baseball players struggled to adapt to hitting a softball, played sparingly, and served much more of a PR role for the teams. The only two Auto Kings to appear in the top-ten categories were Gary Geister, who finished 5th in the NASL with 31 home-runs, while teammate Jerry Gadette finished 10th with 24. 3B/SS Mike Turk was the only Auto King to receive all-league honors in 1980.
The Auto Kings beat Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs, 4-1, in a best of seven series. They lost the NASL World Series to the Milwaukee Schlitz 5-2 in a best of nine series, and the Auto Kings franchise disbanded after the season. In 1982 a Detroit team played at Detroit's Softball City in the United Professional Softball League (UPSL), was led by former Caesar Charles Mitchell, and finished second in the league yet again to the Milwaukee Schlitz. That was the last year for professional softball in the US, as players once again returned to amateur leagues