On August 1, 1994, I had the opportunity to coach against the Colorado Silver Bullets.

The Silver Bullets were a women’s professional baseball team that was sponsored by the Coors Brewing Company. The team existed from 1994 through 1997 barnstorming across the country playing minor league teams, men’s semi-pro and amateur teams. A few years ago, I connected on social media with Missy Coombes, who was one of the original Silver Bullets. She played three years with the team from that inaugural season in 1994 through the 1996 season.

Missy made the switch from baseball to softball and became an All-American softball player during her Junior year at Cal State – Fullerton in 1989.  That year she batted .359 with 29 RBI’s.  She was also a finalist for the Broderick Award, which is softball’s version of the Heisman Trophy.

Although she was a standout softball player, her first love was always baseball, so when the opportunity presented itself to play on the Silver Bullets, she jumped to follow her dream and made the most of it.

During that inaugural season in 1994, Missy was the only left-hander on the Silver Bullets pitching staff, and she finished second on the team in both games started (10) and games completed (2). She walked only 10 batters and struck out 21 in 47.1 innings of work, and was very effective at holding runners close on the base paths. She did not commit an error in 14 games as a pitcher.

As a young girl, Missy made the Pony League All-Star team as a pitcher and was the first and only girl to accomplish that feat in Arcadia, CA.

Coombes is currently a middle school physical education teacher and has a consulting business.  The website for her consulting business is www.missycoombes.com.

The Silver Bullets seem to be somewhat of a forgotten era in women’s baseball. It was great hearing Missy’s story of her experience with team and how she still loves the game today.