This league was the idea of Detroit’s Ed Dreslinski, who invested a large amount of his own money and also procured corporate sponsors such as Coca-Cola, American Tobacco Company and General Motors to take care of transportation costs. All lodging would be taken care of through a deal with Holiday Inn. Each player was insured for $200,000. The league would have 8 teams in the league and play a 28 game schedule. The league would use a Red, White and Blue Softball.
Some information was found on games during the season. Either the league folded before it finished or no info is
available on the winner. The league started with 8 teams and soon thereafter, 2 teams dropped out leaving 6 left.
These are the records I could locate.
1971 National Slowpitch Softball League NSPSL (as of July 18)
1. Little Caesars, Detroit, MI 15- 3 .833
2. Copper Hearth, Milwaukee, WI 10- 4 .715
3. County Sports, Levittown, NY 10-11 .476
4. Toledo Keys, Toledo, OH 8-10 .444
5. Jims Hard Hats, Pittsburgh, PA 10-13 .435
6. York Barbell, York, PA 7-13 .350
– Merchants, Phoenix City, AL 3- 3 N/A (dropped out)
– Piledrivers, VA Beach, VA 2- 4 N/A (dropped out)
Little Caesars of Detroit was 25-3 on August 8th, they defeated County Sports of NY 13-9 to clinch the League Title. Bob Auten and Bill Cole both hit 3-run HRs to lead the way. There was no playoff.
