Modified pitch summer league since ???
We will kick off our 21st season as a co-ed league with the following slate of games in Central Park.
Sunday April 26, 2026
11:00am Heckscher #1
JACKALS vs AWKWARD TIMES
1:45pm Heckscher #1
ASSASSINS vs NINJA PIRATES
4:30pm Heckscher #1
DEAD RINGERS vs MACHINE
4:30pm North Meadow #10
DIVE 106 vs MIXED SIGNALS
This is a list of teams that used to play in the Lower Manhattan Softball League. The pre-2005 men’s league teams will be listed separately, if and when any new information comes to light. If by any chance you played in the LMSL prior to 2010, we are very interested in hearing about it. Please leave a comment below.
Abbey Pub
Played in 2024 and 2025, semifinal appearance 2024.
Angels
One season only, 11-8 record in 2019.
Ball Busters
Played 2009-2022. 5 time champions (2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018). Early teams featured several key players from Bandits. The Ball Busters are still active in other leagues.
Bandits
Entered league in 1st co-ed season 2005. Lost championship series to Machine in 2009. Semifinal appearances 2006 and 2010. Last season 2016.
Boom
First season 2007. Semifinal appearance 2010. Last season 2015.
Bunt Pirates / Ninja Pirates #1
Played 2010-2019. Spinoff of 2009 NY Dirt Dogs. Won league in first season 2010. Semifinal appearance 2011. New version of Ninja Pirates 2025-present.
DJ Reynolds
Played one full season, 2022. Folded early in 2023 season.
Grills
One season only, 12-6 record in 2019.
Hanging Curves
Played 2017-2019. Finished 1st with 15-3 record in 2018. Lost championship series to Ball Busters in 2017 and 2018.
Honey Badgers
Originally called Duke & Earl’s, or Duke’s. Known to exist in 2006, dropped a playoff series to Bandits. Made it to semifinals in 2009 and 2011. Lost championship series to Bunt Pirates 2010. Last season 2019.
Hudson Hawks
Played in 2018 and 2019, several players went on to form Dead Ringers in 2021.
Kenny & the Jets
Played one season only, 2022.
Machine
Played in men’s league days under different names (Atomic Pencils, etc). Believed to have won in 2000 and 2004, also probably a few times in 1990s. Won co-ed league in 2008 & 2009, last season 2009.
Molly Pitcher’s
Known to exist in 2007. Last season 2008.
NY Dirt Dogs
Played in 2008 and 2009. Core of the team became Bunt Pirates.
Reif’s Tavern
League champion 2005, 2006, and 2007. Regular season record something like 58-2 over those seasons. Last season 2007. Reif’s currently has a softball team, probably by now unrelated to their LMSL entry.
Sloppy Sundays
Originally called Varsity Booze. Known to exist in 2006. Last season 2018. Only 4 playoff appearances 2008-2018.
Soldier McGee
Also known as Bourbon Street (2008-09), Brother Jimmy’s (2015), and Promenade (2016). Finished second with 18-6 record in 2010. Last season 2016.
No one knows how long the Lower Manhattan Softball League has been around. The commissioner was asked for a list of champions going back to the beginning. “Before 1984 I don’t know” was part of the answer, and if anyone reading this *does* know when and how the league began, please drop a note in the comments.
*UPDATE* One of the Central Park umpires says he was playing in the LMSL in 1976, no details provided yet. This means the league is in at least its 50th season, and its existence pre-dates almost everyone who took the field in last year’s final.
The home field was once the J.J. Walker, a bandbox of a park occupying most of a city block at Clarkson & Hudson streets in the West Village. An LMSL fall league still plays co-ed arc ball there, and if a man hits it over the fence it counts as two outs. The original teams were mostly sponsored by bars and restaurants in the vicinity of the J.J. Walker. The 1984-1994 era was dominated by the now defunct Riviera Cafe (“food not the best but edible”).
There is a book, “Professor Baseball,” about the middle period of the LMSL. Author Eddy Amenta is a sociologist well-known enough to have his own Wikipedia page. He played for the original Machine team in 2002 and 2003, by which time the league had moved to its current home, Heckscher #1 in Central Park. The Machine existed for many years under the names of different sponsors, and along with Riff Raff and the Hit Men, were the top teams of the 1995-2004 era. In 2003 they came up just short, losing a 5-game championship series to the Hit Men. Three of the games, including the decisive Game 5, went to extra innings.
Beginning in 2005 the LMSL was no longer a softball sausage party. Since then, teams bat and field a minimum of three women. If a team’s female players are slick fielders and strong batters who don’t take vacation in August, there’s a good chance you’ll see them on the list of champions.
| Years | Home Field | Format | Teams | Notes |
| 1976? | probably JJW | Men’s | ||
| ????-1999? | James J. Walker | Men’s | mostly W. Village bars | known to be at JJW in 1993 |
| 2000?-2004 | Heckscher | Men’s | 6 teams in 2003 | JJW closed for renovation 2000 |
| 2005-2019 | Heckscher | Co-ed | usually 10 | |
| 2021-present | Heckscher | Co-ed | 6 to 8 |
Lower Manhattan Softball League 