Baltimore Beltway Senior Softball League (BBSSL)
In 1985 there as a senior softball league called the MARVA league that consisted of teams from Maryland and Virginia. It was short-lived, because travel was so complicated maneuvering through traffic on the Washington Beltway.
When the MARVA league folded, the Baltimore Beltway Senior Softball League came into existence in 1986, with four teams from the MARVA league: Howard County Seniors (Became the Maryland Old Liners in 1990); Dundalk; Greenbelt; and, Montgomery County. In those days the league was a Coed league with several women playing. To play men over 60 and Women over 55 were eligible. Games were nine innings in duration; there were no umpires; no balls, nor strikes were called; no sliding; after 10 runs were scored the inning ended. In1986, the league was known as the Baltimore County Senior League and it took form with six Charter teams: Howard County Seniors, Catonsville, Dundalk, Parkville, Greenbelt and Montgomery County. A number of players from this era played in local and national tournaments under the name of the Montgomery Marauders.
Around 1987-88, a team from Holabird entered the league. At the end of the 1991 season Commissioner Flavio Nardone kicked the Holabird team from the league because they did not want to play any games away from Holabird. In other words, they only wanted to play home games.
In 1990, when the Howard County Senior became the Maryland Old Liners, a second team was formed and they were called Howard County Red. At this time the Montgomery County team dropped out.
In 1992, one new team, Bowie Sixties and one of the Charter Members, Montgomery County re-entered the league. Montgomery County played for two years, 1992 and 1993 and then dropped out, but came back for another year in 1998.
1994 saw two more new teams, Carroll County and Bowie Gold (formed from people on the Bowie Sixties team). Bowie Sixties became Bowie Silver.
In 1995, Arthurs entered the league and eventually changed their name to Glen Burnie.
A new Bowie team, Bowie Bronze and Harford County entered teams in 1999.
Crownsville, later called Glenelg, entered in 2000.
Bel Air was added in 2001.
Two new teams were added in 2008, the Howard Hitters and a second team from Carroll County. The original team became Carroll Blue and the new group Carroll Gray.
Finally in 2010, the Howard Hawks were added to bring the league total to seventeen teams.
The league is divided into three divisions depending on their level of competitiveness. The “A” division never plays against the “C” division. Only the “B” division plays against all the other divisions.
During the life of the Baltimore Beltway Senior Softball League there have only been four Commissioners: Flavio Nardone, Charlie Renner, Skip McAfee and Jim Ganz.
The league plays a schedule of approximately 44 games per year. The season begins in the third week of April and plays through the end of August and includes playoffs. Single games are still nine innings, but doubleheader games are just seven. There is no Fall League. The Board of Directors, consisting of the Managers of the seventeen teams with the Commissioner chairing the meetings, meets at least twice a year, nominally in February before the season begins and again in the fall in either September or October after the season ends. There is a Rules Committee that meets at least yearly and an Ad Hoc Committee is formed to handle protests when they arise.
Teams pay an Annual Franchise Fee of approximately $70 and each team is required to provide a field for playing the games, providing umpires and balls and coordination for any emergencies like potential rainouts, wet field conditions or traffic delay problems. A Cell Phone network has been established for this purpose.
We have an excellent webpage: baltimoreseniorsoftball.com that contains extensive information about the league and its many teams. League results and standings are posted the same day the games are played and one of the members (Rich Costa) has developed a comprehensive tool for assessing team performance.
Jim Ganz, Commissioner
14320 Fairdale Road
Silver Spring, Maryland 20905
301-236-9130