Team Origin

In 1989, five of our original team members played on a poorly coached team that had potential. The team, the Dominators, recruited its players by placing an ad in the San Jose Mercury. The coach, who will remain unnamed to protect his identity, placed himself at Shortstop and batted leadoff. The funniest thing was he was probably the worst hitter and poorest defender on the team, frustrating many of the players. I was urged by one of the players, Joe Melo, to start my own team. After a couple of decent seasons the coach gave up the team, and that was the end of the Dominators.

After taking the spring of 1990 off, I decided to call some of the former Dominators to organize a softball team for the 1990 summer league. I started off by selecting the "cream of the crop" from the former Dominators, and contacted a few other ball players I knew. We played in a "C" league at Twin Creeks Sporting Complex in Sunnyvale, CA, and finished the season at 5-5. Not too bad for a scrappy first year team.

After our first season together playing under the team name "the Giants," we ended up replacing half the team and moved down to the "D" league. Some of the players were not invited back, and others decided to move on because I, the coach, was hard on the team. In my defense, I just wanted to win, and would not tolerate less than someone's best efforts. We went 8-2 in the fall of 1990 Twin Creeks "D" league, but lost (6-9) in our first playoff game to the eventual champion "Booya Tribe." Our inexperience in the post-season hurt us because we had beat the Booya Tribe 16-5, and Valid Logic (the other playoff team) 24-12, in the regular season.

We posted an 8-2 record in the spring of 1991, but were defeated in the playoffs. We made a couple of key acquisitions in the summer of 1991 and posted another 8-2 record to win our first championship in Twin Creeks "D" league. Ironically, our two losses came against the team that we finally beat in the championship game (Reid-Ashman who posted a 9-1 record).

1 Bad Apple

After a disappointing loss in a championship game in which we let an 8-1 lead slip away (lost 8-9), a few of the members of the team went to Denny's restaurant to whine about the game. One of the wonderful female supporters of our team said, "We need to change the name of our team." After giving it some thought, we reflected on one of the players on the team, and his bad attitude. He wanted to win so badly, he would yell at players for making mistakes. I loved him because there was someone else who yelled more than I did, and that almost made me a good guy. A name was thrown out (1 Bad Apple); paying tribute to that singled-out player on the team, and everyone liked it. So the name was decided upon, and only a few players knew the story behind it.

A logo had to be designed, I went to work. I made up a worm coming out of an apple, but something was missing. Our 1 Bad Apple wore glasses, that was the missing link. With a search through some clip-art, that was taken care of. The logo was placed on the line-up card, then later logo shirts were added.

The Truth Revealed

A couple of seasons passed before our 1 Bad Apple knew the team was named after him. Someone told him that the worm coming out of the apple was he, and asked if he had noticed the resemblance. He was not too happy about it and threatened to quit the team, as he frequently (joking) did. He has turned things around to become one of the best team players I have played softball with; yes, Joe Melo has matured.

The original logo was modified (a bat added) for good reason. After winning our 5th championship in the fall of 1997, someone received his 1st MVP trophy. Yes, Joe Melo dominated at the plate, leading the league in Runs Batted In, and Slugging Percentage. It was only fitting that a bat be added to the 1 Bad Apple logo.

For the record, rumor has it that there is another Bad Apple that has taken Joe's Melo's place. But the glasses may have to come off of the logo because he (the new Bad Apple) doesn't wear any. Furthermore, as far as Joe is concerned, if it wasn't for Joe Melo (who I built my team around at the time) and his solid defense, there most likely would have never been a 1 Bad Apple to speak of. I would not have been motivated enough to put a team together. It's easier playing on "someone else's team," than it is to organize a team, all managers can relate to that.

The end product speaks for itself. A great group of guys who love to play softball, and more importantly win. Yah some say it's for fun, but what more fun could you have than taking home the hardware? Thanks to the many wonderful people who have kept our team alive, it's been one of the great joys in my life.

The original 5 Dominators, from which our team originated are Coach Rick Banuelos, Fausto Banuelos, Ken Mason, Joe Melo, Raul Rizo. Tom Sarvela was not an original Dominator, but played with 1 Bad Apple in its inaugural season.

The numbers and hardware over the years:

1991 Twin Creeks Summer League Champs

1992 San Jose City Fall League Champs

1994 Sunnyvale City Fall League Champs

1997 Santa Clara Summer League Champs

1997 Milpitas Fall League Champs

1998 Santa Clara Summer League Champs

1999 Santa Clara Summer League Champs

1999 Santa Clara Fall League Champs

2000 Sunnyvale Spring League Champs

2000 Sunnyvale Summer League Champs

2000 Santa Clara Fall League Champ

2001 Sunnyvale Spring League Champs

2001 Sunnyvale Summer League Champs

2001 Sunnyvale Fall League Champs