SF Gay Softball League 50th Anniversary Season w/ Game vs. SF Police (Opening Day 2023)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

SF Gay Softball League Celebrates 50th Anniversary Season with Exhibition Game vs. SF Police on Opening Day 

The San Francisco Gay Softball League (SFGSL) will celebrate its 50th Anniversary at Opening Day on Sunday, March 19 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Kimbell Field (map) near Geary and Steiner in Japantown/Fillmore District of San Francisco. 

“SFGSL’s 50th Anniversary is such a milestone,” said SFGSL Commissioner Vincent Fuqua. “Especially considering how things are in this world, it’s a remarkable achievement and I’m thrilled and excited to be celebrating this achievement.” 

Opening Day will feature a coed exhibition game reviving a tradition of the SFGSL taking on the San Francisco Police Department softball team. The tradition began in 1973 – with SFGSL winning for the first time in the series in 1974 – and continued until 1978 when openly-gay District 5 Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, a former supervisor and police officer. 

SFGSL and SFPD last met for a friendly exhibition game in 2012 and 2013 – now 10 years later the tradition returns. 

“I am pleased that we are bringing this tradition back for our 50th anniversary,” said Fuqua. “As times have changed, it’s important that we continue to show that our SFPD and SFGSL family/community are building relationships and breaking down barriers that have previously existed,” said Fuqua. 

The game will begin with District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman throwing out the ceremonial 1st Pitch. 

The Opening Day festivities will also include special performances by CHEER San Francisco and the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the official band of the City and County of San Francisco. 

SFGSL was founded in 1973 and currently has 700 players with 44 teams who compete across two divisions – Open Division and Women’s+ Division. At the end of the 1977 season, the New York Ramrod and the San Francisco Badland competed in the first ever-Gay Softball World Series, with San Francisco winning the best-of-five tournament, held in San Francisco. 

SFGSL is a founding member of the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association (NAGAAA). NAGAAA has more than 20,000 athletes in 54 member cities who collectively send roughly 250 teams to compete in seven divisions of play at NAGAAA’s annual weeklong softball world series tournament with this year’s world series in Minneapolis and returning to San Francisco in 2027 for its 50th anniversary. 

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The San Francisco Gay Softball League (SFGSL) is a 501(c)3 non-profit LGBTQ+ softball league committed to providing an organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender participants to compete in an environment conducive to the community. http://www.sfgsl.org/

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