Baltimore Bays


The first Baltimore Bays were a professional soccer team based in Baltimore, Maryland. It was one of ten charter members of the National Professional Soccer League in 1967. The team would become a part of the North American Soccer League, which was the result of a merger between the NPSL and the rival United Soccer Association. The owner was Jerold Hoffberger, who also held the same capacity with the National Brewing Company and Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles. The Bays played its home matches at Memorial Stadium during its first two seasons and Kirk Field, a high school football stadium in Baltimore, in 1969. The team wore National Brewing's colors of red and gold.
Following the 1968 NASL season, the league was in trouble with ten franchises having folded. The 1969 season was split into two halves. The first half was called the International Cup, a double round robin tournament in which the remaining NASL clubs were represented by teams imported from the United Kingdom. The Bays were represented by West Ham United F.C. They were runners-up for the Cup with a 5–2–1 record. For the second half of the 1969 season, the teams returned to their normal rosters and played a 16-game schedule with no playoffs. Gordon Jago coached the Bays.

Year-by-year

Honors

NPSL Championships
Division Titles
US Soccer Hall of Fame
Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame
Rookie of the Year
All-Star First Team Selections
All-Star Second Team Selections