Just a little tid bit about this photo of our team in the suits we called the Hitmen. The photo shoot was done in Tucson, Arizona in the back of some studio downtown and it took 9 hours to do the photo. It was funny because the room had wooden floors and just a plain white wall. It just goes to show you how computers have changed the world.. As you can see how the balls are all smashed into the walls. Those were the good old days..

The Silver Bullets were in existence for 3 years .1988, 1989, and in 1990. We were getting ready for our greatest year ever in 1991 when we had to stop the softball program for one year at Steele's because of business reasons. That was one of the hardest days in my life when I was told that we were not going to have a softball team. But life goes on and a year later Steele's was back with their softball program. Those 3 years as the Hitmen being called the Silver Bullets we rewrote the record books in more ways than one. I played ball in every State that there was except Alaska.

During the period of 3 years that we working with Coors Light, Steele's had the opportunity to have a majority of the best ball players in the game play for them. Some of those players were Bruce Meade, Buddy Slater, Doug Brown, Ted Cox (former Major Leaguer), Cecil Whitehead, and many more.

In 1987 Steele's lost the USSSA Major Men's World Series to Smythe Sox out of Houston, Texas. It was one of the most exciting games in the history of softball in my opinion. So when 1988 gets started and we are involved with the Coors Light people and proceeding to play our schedule, guess what happens to the Smythe Sox team? That's right. They fold their team right before the Smokey Mountain Classic. Now Smythe's team was loaded for bear also. We had played each other that year again a number of times before the break up. They were some heavy duty games.

During the off season Coach Neale was able to lure Billy Blake from Smythe. All he did was win the MVP award at the 1987 USSSA World Series series. He hit like .700 and set a record for RBI's that year with 37. So when Smythe breaks up it's a matter of who Coach neale thinks will help our team win. If you take a look at the photo from Las Vegas you will see that we had 17 players that made it to the photo shoot. Bruce Meade and Freddie Trice were the only ones that were not there for the Vegas shoot. We had enough players on that team to field two teams. Were traveling so much promoting the game that were taking turns with players staying at home and switching off during the week. It was a tough schedule but we got through it. The photo at right is of Billy Blake getting a handshake after he hit the home run to beat Superior Appollo in the NSA Men's Major World Series.

Another player that Dave picked up for the Silver Bullet years was Monstrous Monty Tucker. Big Monty had set the record for the USSSA Men's Major World Series for batting average when Dave first saw him. When ever the big man got real hot he was unstoppable. He put on a display in one tournament in Texas in 1989. It was the NSA Men's Major World Series. All he did was go 20 for 21 with 14 homeruns to capture the MVP award then. In 1990 Monty also helped propell the Hitmen to the ASA Men's Super title with an .800 batting average with 18 homeruns to go along with 32 rbi's. The thing about Monty was that he was always the team player. He would take the walk when given and if they shifted him he would take the base hit. He could hit the ball as far as anyone and just loved to play the game.

During our days on the road, traveling from city to city we made our way up to Canada not once but numerous times. We traveled all the way up to the British of Columbia and played in the Vancouver Minor League baseball stadium. I remember it so well because Vancouver was such a clean city. It was totally awesome. I remember us having a home run derby there and the people were just stunned when they saw me hitting the balls out of their baseball stadium. I wasn't the only player hitting the balls out that night eighter. Big Scott Virkus was doing his share of damage to the softballs that night himself. He launched a couple to left center that might still be going. The night after the contest The very next morning we got up and got on a Cruise ship and went to the Island of Victoria. When we arrived at the ballpark in Victoria the people were waiting for us there.. We played there in front of crowds of 2 to 3 thousand people. They couldn't believe how far we were hitting the ball.

On another occasion in 1990 we flew to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to play a couple of exhibitions games with their All-Star team from Canada. They had invited us to be part of their Molsom Cup Challenge. We played two games in a baseball stadium comparable to a minor league stadium. The dimensions were 325 down the lines and 400 in centerfield. We played their all star twice but they were really no match for our team. We outscored them by a large number of runs both games.

I think it was a great experience for the Canadians to see what big time softball was about back in the states. The next morning we were supposed to fly back to Chicago where they were waiting for us in our Silver Bullets vans. There was only one problem and that was when we arrived at the Airport our flight is canceled because the plane was broken down. They make us get off and we wait for a part to fix the plane. So now we have to wait at the airport until 6:00 that evening.

Needless to say Dave was not all that happy with that idea. Finally we board the plane around 5:30 for our flight back to the states. Now while we are flying there is a terrible storm that is brewing around Chicago. Now you have to know Dave because he hates to fly anyway and here we are circling Chicago and they tell us we can't land and now we head back to Duluth, Minnesota to gas up.

When we are on the ground in De Leuth they won't let us off the plane, because of the Customs law.Dave is livid now and wants off of the plane. The stewardess says "there is no way we can get off the plane because of the Custom laws". So we stay on the plane and go to Minneapolis to spend the night because the weather is so bad that they won't let us land in Chicago.

We finally hit the sack at around 1:00 in the morning. Rise and shine at 5:00 to make a 6:00 flight back to Chicago. Not a bad day right.

When we arrived back in Chicago, I had to go downtown and do a TV interview. My teammates went back to the hotel to relax. Not me...After the interview with the TV channel, it was a NBC station in downtown Chicago, they had me go down to the Chicago River and the newscaster asked me "if I could hit a ball across the river"? It was suppose to be a promotional thing for Coors and we were trying to help promote the Milwaukee tournament that we were going to play on the weekend.. Now people are riding up and down this river in their boats and this guy wants me to start launching softballs across the river. I say to the guy "how far do you think it is across that river"? On the other side of the river was a 5 story high parking garage. He says "about 300". I said 300? I tell him that I am going to hit the ball on top of that parking garage and he starts laughing. So I reached into my bat bag and I throw about a dozen softballs to one of the camera man and I say just pitch them up here close. The first 9 I hit on top of this garage and this newscaster is just horrified. He say's "can you miss hit one so it will land in the river"? I said "yeah I think I can handle that" .

After I take care of this interview I am on my way to the ball field where we play the 16 inch world champions in a game of 16 inch and then we play them a game of 12 inch. They beat us in their game of 16 inch and then we beat them in a softball game. Now you would think hey I am going to bed right. No! We have to go to some club and hang out and sign autographs and just talk softball with the people. I end up in the bed about 2:30 in the morning. Not to bad for a days work!!! This is just another day in the life of a Silver Bullet softball player..

This is a picture of our 1990 team that won the prestigious Smoky Mountain Classic.Scott Virkus was the MVP that year while Todd Joerling won the best Defensive player award. All I did was chip in with 17 Home Runs with 32 RBI's and a .781 batting average. We ended up beating a very good Ritch's Salvage team out of North Carolina. Click on the photo for a bigger image.

Mighty Mike How do you hit 844 home runs in one season? You hit nine home runs in one game, eight in a game twice, seven in a game five times, six nine times, five 24 times, four 43 times, three 76 times, two 72 times, and one 66 times. That's 844 home runs in 350 games. Actually, it's 844 home runs in 289 games. I actually went 52 games without a home run during my record setting season in 1987. Just to prove that the remarkable 1987 season was no fluke , I came back with 830 home runs in 365 games during the 1988 season.